GUILTY KS - Letitia Davis, 36, raped, burned alive in Wichita park, 14 Nov 2014 *arrest*

Police confirm that the victim of last Friday's attack in Fairmount Park has died on Saturday morning. Her family was with her.

Prosecutors have filed attempted capital murder charges against Cornell A. McNeal, a Wichita man accused of raping a woman and setting her on fire at a public park. Bond was set Friday at $250,000 during McNeal's first court appearance on charges stemming from the Nov. 14 attack. The 26-year-old man also was charged with rape and arson after allegedly setting fires at the park and at a garage on that same day...

Firefighters were responding to a late-night grass fire at Fairmount Park when they found the 36-year-old victim with severe burns on more than half her body.

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Police say the woman was walking home from work when she was attacked.

Neighbors say they found the woman after hearing screams her and seeing a grass fire in the park. Firefighters were called to the scene to put out the fire. The woman was taken to the hospital in very critical condition...

The 36-year-old was a mother of four.

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McNeal and the victim had a "random encounter" last Friday night in Fairmount Park, police said, and the attack occurred a short time after. It appears the two did not know each other before the attack, Wichita Police Capt. Troy Livingston said.

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About 50 people gathered at the site of the crime Sunday evening to remember Letitia Davis, the victim of an attack at Fairmount Park who died Saturday morning...

Police were able to link McNeal to the crime through evidence obtained by forensic nurses at Via Christi St. Francis hospital...

Since the victim’s death, the District Attorney’s office will review the charges filed against McNeal with the Wichita Police Department Monday morning, Dillon said Saturday. The charges will likely be amended to capital murder, rather than attempted capital murder.

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A Kansas judge has ruled that more information about a Wichita man charged in a sexual assault and fatal burning must be released to the media.

The Associated Press, The Wichita Eagle and broadcasters KWCH, KAKE and KSN went to court Friday pursuing the probable cause affidavits in the case against Cornell McNeal.

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“When confronted with the information that genetic evidence on the victim could be contributed to Cornell, he replied that it was not him and repeated that he had not had sex with anyone in the park that Friday evening,” a Wichita police detective wrote in the affidavit.

According to the affidavit, Davis told the man who found her lying on the ground amid fire that “they were trying to kill me.” She later told firefighters who responded to the park fire that she had been raped, beaten and set on fire by one person that she did not know.

At the hospital, she vaguely described her attacker to Wichita police but fell unconscious and was unable to give any further details.

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According to both probable cause affidavits in the arrest of the suspect, Cornell Antoine McNeal, 26, a representative from the SCFSC advised that there was a preliminary match for the DNA profile previously run from the Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit (SAECK) taken from Davis’ body. The doctor said the “single-source male profile located from the SAECK matched a previously submitted known standard profile of Cornell A. McNeal which was submitted under case number 10C61417.”

KSN learned that the case is a Wichita Police incident report filed in August 2010.

In that report, a victim alleges that a suspect forcibly raped her. McNeal’s name is not listed specifically on the incident report, but this is the case Wichita Police said is tied to McNeal’s DNA.

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A Wichita woman who was raped, beaten and set on fire at Fairmount Park in November died of complications of the burns and also suffered facial fractures, an autopsy report says.

Letitia Davis, 36, had burns on about 70 percent of her body, said a report on the autopsy, conducted at the Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center. The report was filed in court Tuesday...

McNeal, 27, remains in jail on a bond of more than $1.25 million. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 5, but it could be postponed, said Dan Dillon, spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office.

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The crime shocked Wichita because of its brutality and left its mark in blood-stained turf and scorched earth in the middle of a historic, well-used park just south of the Wichita State University campus...

At the end of Thursday’s hearing, Judge Warren Wilbert found enough evidence to send Cornell McNeal, 27, to trial on charges of capital murder and rape in Davis’ death. If convicted of capital murder, McNeal could face the death penalty...

Davis suffered burns from her chest down onto her legs. She had severe cuts on her face and head. One of her ear lobes had been detached. One of her fingernails had been broken. The first firefighters and police to arrive found her covered in blood and with burns so severe her skin was coming off.

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The murder trial against Cornell McNeal will be put on hold while he undergoes a second mental evaluation.

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On Wednesday, Judge Warren Wilbert said McNeal already had a mental evaluation and was found capable of standing trial.

McNeal's attorneys asked for another evaluation because they said their client has not communicated with them and refuses to do so.

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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.

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KayElJay said:

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

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The man charged with capital murder in the rape, beating and fire death of a woman walking in a Wichita park almost three years ago has been deemed competent to stand trial, ending a lengthy hold on the case.

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McNeal’s arraignment is set for June 23. He is expected to plead not guilty to the charges. A jury trial should be scheduled sometime after that.

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The notice, which reserves the state’s ability to seek a death sentence if McNeal is convicted of capital murder, was filed following Friday’s arraignment, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said. McNeal, who refuses to speak to his attorneys or in court, was deemed competent to stand trial last week.

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McNeal’s attorneys asked for another mental competency evaluation, which Judge Wilbert granted. Both sides tentatively agreed to have competency evaluations done at Larned State Hospital over the next 60 days.

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