In addition to kidnapping charges, 29-year-old Mario Andrette McNeill is also being charged with first degree murder and rape in connection to the death of young Shaniya Davis.

Police have secured video surveillance from a North Carolina hotel showing McNeill carrying five-year-old Shaniya in an elevator.

Police claim that Shaniya’s mother, Antoinette Davis, sold her daughter to McNeill for sex. Davis originally claimed her child was kidnapped by another individual but her story fell apart as police continued investigating.

By the way, law enforcement officials confirmed that Davis is currently pregnant.

Is the story of 10 black women missing and our being found dead just a coincidence or the work of a serial killer?  And why haven’t you heard about this story on the 11pm news?

From Bossip.com

Ten women have been found slain or have been declared missing in Rocky Mount, N.C., in recent years. But the rest of the country hasn’t heard about…… a possible serial killer stalking the young women in this Southern town of 60,000. The latest victim, Elizabeth Jane Smallwood, was identified on Oct. 12. Why have the Rocky Mount homicides been largely ignored?

“When you think about the famous missing person cases over the last few years it’s Chandra Levy, Natalee Holloway, and Laci Peterson,” notes Sam Sommers, associate professor of psychology at Tufts University. All these women had a few things in common—they were white, educated, and came from middle-class families. The victims in Rocky Mount—which residents describe as a “typical Southern town,” and is about 40 percent white and more than 50 percent black—were different. They were all African-American, many were poor, and some had criminal histories including drug abuse and prostitution.

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North Carolina Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue signed into law Thursday the state’s Racial Justice Act into law, making North Carolina the second state to allow statistical data on race to be used when determining whether or not to put someone to death. Under the law, nobody can be executed because a judgment was sought or obtained on the basis of race, News 14 in Raleigh reports. “While our criminal justice system will continue to have the death penalty, racial disparities have no place, no place whatsoever, in North Carolina’s criminal justice system,” said Perdue, who actually supports the death penalty. Over the past three years, three Black death-row inmates have been exonerated and released from prison. It’s the type of mistakes that Black leaders, prisoner-advocates and anti-death-penalty activists say the new law could help prevent. “By passing the Racial Justice Act, we have infused antibody treatment into a system that is diseased with the infection of racism,” the Rev. Dr. William Barber, president of the N.C. NAACP, said. But not every body is pleased with the new law. Some prosecutors have argued that it will make it much tougher to put to death deserving criminals in North Carolina.

A crazed 45-year-old gunman killed a staffer and at least seven elderly patients at a North Carolina nursing home Sunday, marking yet another bloody day in March. This morning, police scrambled to explain why the alleged shooter, Robert Stewart, had carried out the violent spree, particularly since he was not an employee of the Pinelake Health and Rehab Center in Carthage, N.C., and did not appear to know any of the deceased patients, who ranged from 78 to 98 years old. Read more.

In yet another bizarre sex-kidnapping crime in a rural southern community, three North Carolina men have been charged with holding 10 teenagers at gunpoint and forcing them to smoke dope and perform sex acts on one another. Unlike the case involving six West Virginians who kidnapped a young woman whom they tortured and raped, the defendants in this strange ordeal are young African-American men. Authorities in Sampson County, N.C., say that the men, all in their early-20s, held the school-age females and four males hostage at the home of one of the victims.

Figures show Black men are being harassed. The NYPD apparently is up to its old tricks. A report released this week shows the department stopped a record number of Blacks and Hispanics fin 2006, according to figures gathered by Newsday. Despite criticism about overly aggressive tactics, the NYPD appears headed toward stopping and questioning a record number of people this year, the newspaper’s investigation shows. The department in 2006 stopped 508,540 people – up dramatically from 97,296 stops in 2002. The findings have sparked a wave of criticism that minorities, particularly Black and Hispanic men, are being singled out and harassed by police. The total dropped to 468,932 last year, but in the first quarter of this year, 145,098 people were stopped – the highest quarterly total since the NYPD has kept those numbers.

Undercover N.C. cops Taser man at his father’s funeral.  Five Wilmington, N.C.-area sheriff’s deputies face disciplinary actions for using a Taser on a man as he served as a pallbearer at his father’s funeral, a North Carolina sheriff said Wednesday. Gladwyn Taft Russ III was serving as a pallbearer at the Saturday service and was loading his father’s casket into a hearse when the undercover deputies approached him, according to authorities. Relatives said two deputies, dressed in coats and ties, grabbed Russ and kneed him in his back before using a Taser on him. As they approached Russ, one of the deputy’s gun fell out of its holster, witnesses reported. “Everybody was so scared. We thought it was a drug deal gone bad,” said Ronnie Simmons, another pallbearer and Russ’ brother-in-law. “We almost dropped the casket.” Russ, 42, had failed to surrender after being charged with threatening his ex-wife, who lives in another state. After his father died on Nov. 11, Russ agreed to surrender to authorities after the funeral. When deputies approached Russ, he “went wild” and spat on the officers, Chief Deputy Ed McMahon said. New Hanover County Sheriff Sid Causey told The Star-News of Wilmington that five of the officers involved would be disciplined, although he wouldn’t say what punishment they would face. “I apologize to anyone that was there,” Causey said. “Family, friends, relatives. … That was a bad decision.” Russ was charged with assault on a government official, resisting an officer, disorderly conduct and felony malicious conduct by a prisoner.

Obama will govern with all eyes on him. Since Election Day, I have traveled to three cities by plane, train and automobile and spoken with complete strangers anxious to discuss the victory of President-Elect Barack Obama.  I overheard conversations on cell phones, in restaurants’ and while waiting in line about the impact of his win and the enormity of its historical impact. Read more at Pamela on Politics.
It’s Official: Obama wins N. Carolina. President-elect Barack Obama officially has put North Carolina in his win column, The Associated Press reported Thursday.  Among the findings in exit polling data posted to CNN.com: Some 60 percent of North Carolina voters said the economy was their No. 1 concern in the election. Among those voters, Obama defeated his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, 52 percent to 48 percent. The AP called North Carolina for Obama on Thursday after determining that the ballots yet to be counted in the state aren’t enough for McCain to make up his 13,000-vote deficit. Obama won the presidency Tuesday night after garnering well over 270 electoral votes in states across the country, but North Carolina had remained too close to call. Tuesday’s election marks the first time that North Carolina has voted for a Democrat in the presidential race since the state went for Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Obama to hold first news conference. Barack Obama is to hold his first post-election news conference this afternoon, after meeting with his team of economic advisers, according to press reports. Meanwhile, the man Obama chose to serve as chief of staff has agreed to take the position. After days of speculation, the sharp-tongued, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) made it official Thursday, and has agreed to give up his congressional seat to take a position in the Obama administration. He is expected to be the “tough cop” to Obama’s “good-cop” role. Obama will also meet with his team of economic advisers as he seeks economic advice from leaders of business, government and academia to stabilize the struggling economy – the nation’s No. 1 concern – his first order of public business. The 47-year-old president-elect will officially take office in Jan. 20. 

Another economic stimulus plan is in the works.

In an unusual move, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, apparently opting for a little job security given recent polls showing Sen. Barack Obama ahead of Republican John McCain, endorsed the economic stimulus plan of the Democratic presidential contender. Obama and other top Democrats on Capitol Hill have been pushing a plan to jump start the economy with another $300 billion in new “stimulus” spending, but Republicans, who say national debt is already out of control, have been resisting. Even so, President Bush said on Monday that he, too, is open to the idea of another round of economic stimulus, but he wants to see how the plan shakes out in Congress. Backing the Democrats’ plan is a bit risky for Bernanke, whose been in the hot seat with Congress lately because of the moves the feds have been making to prop up Wall street. Analysts say this unusual political gamble of backing one party’s plans over the other, may be seen as a move to potentially win favor with the next president.Durham’s Black “Wall Street” is honored. A bronze sculpture unveiled to honor Durham’s “Black Wall Street” was unveiled last week before dozens people who gathered to commemorate the history of Parrish Street, or “Black Wall Street,” the name many say DuBois and Booker T. Washington gave the North Carolina financial district in the early 1900s. The sculptures honor the Black-owned businesses that built Durham – The Mutual Life Insurance Co., Mechanics & Farmers Bank, Mutual Community Savings Bank. They also honored, among others, the man the street is named for: E.J. Parrish, who built a tobacco warehouse a block from the West Parrish Street corner where the first of the sculptures was unveiled. Three more markers will be placed on East Parrish Street in the spring.

The Klan is alive and well in southwest Ga. The small town of Donalsonville, Ga., was the site of a Klan rally on Saturday. “I’ve been in law enforcement for 32 years in Seminole County I’ve lived here all my life and this is the first Klan rally that I know of,” Seminole County Sheriff Dale Swanner told TV station WCTV. Several months ago, the Georgia Knight Riders of the Ku Klux Klan asked for a permit to rally against illegal immigrants and sexual predators at the Seminole County courthouse. And the Sheriff says since the county currently has no permitting process, the public meeting was granted. “Whether you like the Klan, disagree with them or not, the Constitution gives them the same rights it gives any other group – to peacefully assemble,” said Swanner. Calvin Brown Jr., a Seminole County resident who opposes the KKK, said, “I feel that everyone has freedom of speech, but at the same time we fight against terror and terrorists, and that’s a terror hate group. And while members of the KKK behind me say they came for a peaceful rally, it’s still creating a lot of controversy.” Not everyone there opposed the Klan’s agenda. One supporter, Donaldsonville resident Tommy Williamson, said someone needs to “stand up for White people’s rights.” However, Robert Sayre of the Georgia Unity Organization, said, “They have a 143-year-history of violence. They have killed children. If they don’t wish to perpetuate that any longer, they need to change their name.”  More than 80 law enforcement officials were at the rally, and at least half of them were hidden from public view. The Klan spoke for nearly 30 minutes and then chose to conclude the rally peacefully. The group was escorted out of town by police for security purposes.

Ty Lawson was underage at time of June arrest.
North Carolina basketball player Ty Lawson has pleaded guilty to drinking and driving under-age after his June arrest in Chapel Hill. Lawson, 20, completed community service and told the court on Tuesday that he wouldn’t break the law again. At a traffic stop, he registered a .03 blood alcohol level, below North Carolina’s legal driving limit, but a violation because Lawson’s not 21. He completed terms of his plea agreement and won’t be charged with violating a noise ordinance and driving on a suspended license. The Tar Heel returned to play in his junior year after initially planning to enter the 2008 NBA draft.