Why case in rape, death of woman in Fairmount Park has stalled

On Nov. 14, 2014, a man grabbed a woman while she was walking through a park on Wichita’s north side, raped her, beat her, burned her and then left her for dead.

She died after languishing in the hospital for eight days. The brutality and random nature of the violence shocked the community and led to efforts to increase safety in the area.

Two years later, Letitia Davis’ accused attacker still hasn’t been arraigned on capital murder and other charges because his ability to stand trial and his mental health are in question. A trial date is set following an arraignment.

Cornell A. McNeal willingly speaks to sheriff’s deputies at the Sedgwick County Jail, to clinic staff and to the doctor at the state-run mental hospital ordered to evaluate his state of mind.

But for months now, he has refused to talk to his own defense attorneys or acknowledge inquiries from a judge.

And that silence — whether it’s voluntary or not — has left the case stalled.

Attorneys say it’s common for cases like McNeal’s to take several months — and even a few years — to reach their conclusion, especially when a defendant’s competency needs to be evaluated.

But the wait can be discouraging for those seeking justice for the victims, said Corinne Radke, victim advocate for Wichita’s Chapter of Parents of Murdered Children.

“It’s very frustrating to family members because you get your hopes all built up that you’re going to go to court, you’re going to get something settled maybe finally,” but then nothing happens to quicken the resolution, she said.

‘Lived for her kids’

McNeal, now 28, was arrested and jailed on Nov. 19, 2014 — five days after the attack on Davis, a 36-year-old newly engaged mother of four.

The assault took place late on a chilly Friday night in Fairmount Park, 1647 N. Yale, near Wichita State University.

Davis was found naked, bleeding from her head and lying in a ring of flaming grass near the park’s tennis court after a resident who lives in the neighborhood heard her screams. Her attacker had set her on fire.

She suffered severe cuts to her face, a detached ear lobe and burns to approximately 70 percent of her body, according to her autopsy report — injuries that led to her eventual death.

Before she fell unconscious, Davis told firefighters she didn’t know the man who had assaulted her.

After pleas to the public for help in finding the man responsible, authorities tracked McNeal down using a broken flip phone they discovered while scouring the park for evidence. DNA linked him to the sexual assault.

At a vigil for Davis following the attack, her fiance’s daughter described her as a “very outgoing person” who “lived for her kids” and “smiled no matter what.”

“She did not deserve that,” Marcie Bell said at the time.

Because the attack included the rape and death of the same victim, prosecutors charged McNeal with capital murder — the only crime in Kansas that has execution as a possible sentence.

District Attorney Marc Bennett said last week that his office is contemplating seeking the death penalty against him.

McNeal’s arraignment has been on hold for over a year while his mental health and his ability to understand the charges and assist in his defense are being evaluated by doctors at Larned State Security Hospital.

Originally the hearing was set for Nov. 12, 2015. He had been expected to plead not guilty to the charges then.

McNeal’s case can progress no further until his competency has been determined, Bennett said.

McNeal, when interviewed at the outset of the case, had been willing to talk to a Wichita police detective, Tim Relph, according to testimony at a court hearing last year.

At that time, he denied having any contact with Davis or involvement with the attack but said he had been walking in the area that night to “clear his head.” He was supposed to have been at a local work-release facility but failed to report back there after looking for a job two days earlier.

Silence

Bennett and Mark Rudy, Sedgwick County’s chief public defender, were limited in what they could say specifically about McNeal’s case because it is ongoing. Rudy is representing McNeal with assistant public defender Jason Smartt.

But, speaking generally, both said capital murder cases – especially ones where the death penalty is possible – generally take longer to adjudicate than those filed over other types of crimes.

In part, that’s because capital-murder defendants receive a “super due process to make sure mistakes aren’t made,” said Rudy, who has litigated death-eligible cases in Ohio and Kansas for about 20 years.

He characterized the time it’s taking for McNeal’s case to progress through the court system as “average, maybe slightly above average.”

But, he added, “We do have the mental health issue here.”

Rudy initially expressed concerns over McNeal’s competency last December, about a month after his preliminary hearing — which is like a mini-trial but instead of a conviction or acquittal, it’s used to determine whether a defendant should be tried on the crimes charged. It was after that hearing that McNeal fell silent.

He went to the hospital in Larned for his first mental evaluation in April, according to court records. He’s there for his second one now.

At a hearing in August, Rudy asked District Judge Warren Wilbert to order the second mental evaluation because McNeal was refusing to speak to his attorneys and the court despite his telling a Larned doctor that he would cooperate.

“We’ve made it an effort at least once a week to go up and see Mr. McNeal. He’s refused to come up for a pro(fessional) visit with us,” Rudy said in court, adding that McNeal had also refused to acknowledge him when sheriff’s deputies allowed him into McNeal’s holding cell that day before court.

Wilbert, at the hearing, called on McNeal to show some sign acknowledging the day’s proceedings. McNeal did nothing but sit and stare, unmoving, at the table in front of him and at the courtroom floor.

When the hearing ended, he stood immediately and let deputies escort him out of the courtroom.

When McNeal was gone, Wilbert said: “Obviously he hears and understands what’s going on.”

In a recent interview, Rudy said he didn’t know when McNeal’s second evaluation would be complete and his competency determined by the court.

‘Moving forward’

But some feel lengthy prosecutions – regardless of the reason for them – revictimize the families and friends of those killed.

For Radke, the Wichita Parents of Murdered Children victim advocate, the decade it took to try the man accused of fatally shooting her only son in Finney County in 1986 “was hell.”

The wait was “just so frustrating” and filled with “sometimes unnecessary” delays, she said.

“I mean, you may be sitting in the courtroom and they decide there’s not going to be anything that’s going to happen.”

In the time that Sherry Nolan has worked for the Cincinnati-based National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children, she said she has sat through court hearings in dozens of homicide cases. Extended waits for a case to progress sometimes means survivors don’t get the chance to see justice served, she said.

It also halts their abilities to heal.

“We don’t talk about moving on. We talk about moving forward,” said Nolan, whose daughter and unborn granddaughter were killed in 2001. “For the families, the prolonging of everything is just very hard.”

The frustration is amplified when a family feels like a defendant is holding up a case on purpose, she added.

“I’ve been in court with families where the defendant, the closer they get to trial being set, they fire their attorneys because they know it will prolong … finalization (of a case) and their possible convictions.

“That takes a toll on families.”

Marathon, not a sprint

If McNeal ultimately is deemed competent to stand trial, his continued silence — as long as it’s voluntary — doesn’t mean his case won’t progress.

Bennett said being competent is about a defendant having the capability to understand the criminal charges and assist in his or her defense — not about a choice to do so.

“If a person wants to come into court and sit and stare at the floor the entire time, they’re free to do that,” Bennett said. “They’re free to communicate or not — it’s up to them,” as long as that decision isn’t a product of a mental illness.

Although two years to reach the arraignment stage of a criminal case sounds like a long time, Bennett and Rudy said it’s not unusual when competency is in question.

“Given the type of case this is and the stakes that are at play, all the parties want to be extra careful here and do everything we need to,” Rudy said.

Bennett agreed.

“The criminal justice system is here to make sure that we do things right, and they’re going to make sure that — whether it’s (McNeal’s) case or any other — that we’re going to follow the procedures put in place by the court.”

He added: “These major cases, as we tell families all the time, they are a marathon. They’re not a sprint. And it takes awhile.”

This story was originally published December 10, 2016 at 6:18 PM with the headline "Why case in rape, death of woman in Fairmount Park has stalled."