A Pender County judge dismissed a first-degree statutory rape charge against David Wesley Prevatte on Monday, narrowing the case against him just as closing arguments were set to begin in the long-delayed murder trial over the 2017 death of his five-year-old niece, Paitin Fields. The ruling came on Day 7 of testimony in Burgaw, North Carolina, with first-degree murder and statutory sexual offense charges still intact against him.
The decision to drop the statutory rape count came after prosecutors rested their case, according to Atlanta News First. Paitin was brought unconscious to Pender Memorial Hospital in Burgaw on November 13, 2017, then transferred to New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, where she died three days later, on November 16, 2017, according to Court TV. An autopsy by the North Carolina medical examiner concluded she died of ligature strangulation and showed physical evidence of sexual trauma, the same outlet reports.
A Nearly Nine-Year Path to Trial
Pender County Sheriff's investigators publicly named Prevatte as their primary suspect in June 2018, after he allegedly threatened the lead detective during a recorded jail phone call. Still, he was not formally arrested for the murder until February 4, 2022, in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, according to WHQR. In the gap between his identification as a suspect and his eventual arrest, Prevatte pleaded guilty in 2019 to unrelated charges, including witness intimidation, and served a prison sentence before returning to the community, per the same outlet.
Prosecutors formally notified the court in February that the State of North Carolina would not seek the death penalty in the case, limiting the sentencing stakes even if jurors convict Prevatte on the remaining charges, Court TV reported.
Dueling Theories Over the Ligature
During testimony Monday, prosecutors presented red earbud headphones found on Prevatte's bedside table, containing DNA from both Prevatte and Paitin, as the alleged strangulation weapon. Defense counsel countered by noting that medical examiners had originally suspected a belt was used, and pointed to missing physical evidence in the case, Court TV reported.
Defense attorney Luther Johnson Britt III argued in court that Prevatte found his niece seizing on the couch and carried her to the hospital, asserting that any bodily fluids or DNA transferred to his clothing came from CPR and life-saving efforts rather than an assault, per Court TV's coverage of the proceedings.
What Comes Next
With the statutory rape charge now dismissed, jurors heading into closing arguments must decide whether the state's remaining evidence, the earbuds, the DNA mixtures, and the timeline of events, proves first-degree murder and statutory sexual offense beyond a reasonable doubt. No semen was found on the physical evidence tested, and the defense has pressed hard on what it calls gaps in the state's case as the trial moves toward a verdict.
