Family member charged with murder of Orangeburg Co. girl

(Orangeburg) Dec. 10, 2004 - Orangeburg County say a member of 14-year-old Chanta Davis strangled her and dumped her body in a pond.

Davis' cousin, Ezekiel Haynes, 18, was formally charged with the Elloree Elementary School eighth grader's murder on Friday. Dozens of Chanta's family and friends were at the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Department when Haynes made his first public appearance to face the charges.

Chanta's mother, Catherine Davis, was also at the arraignment on Friday, "He killed my daughter. This is my baby. He took my baby away from me. I don't have no baby no more."

Sheriff Larry Williams says a Department of Transportation worker found Davis' body with a small rope or cord around her neck. Investigators say her cousin strangled her with the pull to a window shade at an abandoned mobile home near the pond in which her body was found about two miles from her home on Wednesday.

Williams say Haynes was angry after an argument with the girl, "We believe some type of relationship with the young girl of some type, I'm not defining any particular type, there was some type of disagreement."

Coroner Samuetta Marshall says an autopsy in Newberry on Thursday showed Davis had been beaten in the upper body and head with a blunt object and then strangled. Preliminary autopsy results indicate the cause of death was strangulation.

Family members last saw her at home on Bay Street before basketball on Tuesday night.

Chanta was an 8th grade honor roll student at Elloree Elementary School. Principal Janie Dease says she was in the gifted and talented program and a member of the chorus and step team, "She enjoyed life, she enjoyed her studies. She loved puzzles, had a great vocabulary."

Dease showed WIS News 10 essays Chanta wrote recently. In one about friendship, Chanta said she was a loving and caring person.

Davis' father, was deployed to Iraq in November with the South Carolina Army National Guard in November. Because he is unable to return to South Carolina until Sunday, his daughter's funeral is scheduled for Tuesday at Felderville Church on Highway 176 in Santee.

By Jennifer Miskewicz
Updated 6:14pm by BrettWitt with AP