Testimony that Mario McNeill Attempted to Electrocute Himself Twice After Initial Interviews in 2009

Wednesday morning, May 15 in Courtroom 4A, another week of testimonies continue in the U.S. vs. Mario McNeill trial. At the end of the trial McNeill could face the death penalty for seven charges that include: first-degree murder, first-degree rape of a child, and human trafficking in the high profile 2009 case of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis.

The Honorable Jim Ammons opened the trial in private, without the jury present, confirming with Mario McNeill's defense team that if the entire interview tape were to be played inside the courtroom that it be redacted in certain areas as specified by his lawyers.

McNeill disagreed with his attorneys and wished for the full interview tape to be played for the jury. Judge Ammons explained to McNeill that his attorneys are thinking strategically and he advised him to consider their recommendations.

"They tell me that you absolutely will not follow their advice, is that correct," questioned Judge Ammons?

"Yes," replied McNeill.

The judge ruled that there is an impasse, beyond more than an agreement between McNeill and his attorneys and ruled that his defense counsel, defer and abide by his wishes. There were no objections in the courtroom.

Testimony was heard by former Fayetteville police officer Chris Corcione who spoke about his initial interview which lasted an hour and a half and returned with FBI Agent Brostrum when McNeill later made contradictory statements.The estimated time for interviews with McNeill totalled three hours and seventeen minutes.

"I think it's important to note that the purpose of the interview was to find Shaniya Davis, our efforts were to get Mr. McNeill to tell us where the child was," said Corcione.

From the stand, Corcione testified that during the interview McNeill denied being in the mobile home park and at the Sanford hotel in spite of the fact that the investigators had photos of him at both locations.

"At the end of my interview I told him I thought he did something terrible with that child then I left," said Corcione.

Corcione retold how that during the breaks between interviews McNeill used his cell phone and talked to people and in one of the breaks McNeill took his key and put it in the electic socket after making the sign of the cross, and then did it again with his shoes off. Corcione said you could see from the video that he did get a jolt from that action.

"At the end of the interview process when the decision was made by the command that he should be arrested," said Corcione. "During the arrest procedures they searched him again and found a small pocket knife on him."

At approximately 10a.m. the jury was shown the videotaped interview of McNeill's testimony with the agents. The tape lasted approximately 40 minutes in length and was only shown to the jury panel and legal teams, with the projection screen turned around impeding the view of the media and spectators in the courtroom. The jury members had a proposed transcript in front of them to read while they watched the tape.