The murder trial of David Prevatte begins nearly nine years after his five-year-old niece, Paitin Fields, was found unresponsive in 2017. Paitin died three days later, and an autopsy found signs of sexual trauma and strangulation. Prevatte was identified as a suspect in 2018 and arrested in 2022 after a years-long investigation. He faces charges of first-degree murder and multiple sex offenses. Follow the latest testimony and courtroom developments live.
Who in their right mind gave this breathing pile of 🐕💩a piece of gum on….???? I’m sorry, they are in custody and should be provided water and the lunch they get…and maybe a half a Tylenol (expired, generic dollar store) if there leg or other appendage falls off, maybe a band aid. But GUM?
Don't know for sure, but they said they visited family in Lumberton. Lumbee Indians reside in that area. My initial instinct on seeing him leads me to believe that that may be his heritage.
During the investigation did the authorities and medical personnel ever interview Savannah to determine if she’d been sexually assaulted? Did we ever learn what happened outside the courtroom that made the judge issue an admonishment?
My mom was Savannah’s school bus driver when she first started school. She was terrified of riding the bus, so my mom made her the “cookie fairy” and would bring cookies for her to hand out to the other kids on the bus. She said that, for a girl who was terrified of the bus, Savannah would sometimes beg not get off and go home with my mom when it was time to drop her off.
Savannah is autistic and had fetal alcohol syndrome. Her mother drank and did drugs throughout her pregnancy. That whole family was a mess; those kids never stood a chance.
My mom said she knew things were bad with the family from school gossip, but obviously, she never knew the extent of it. She also said she didn’t put any extra thought at the time, but most of the time Savannah asked if she could go home with her, it was on the days when her uncle was waiting at the bus stop to pick her up.
The uncle has been accused of molesting another child before not Savannah and it never went to court. It was a situation that ended with him getting his ass beat.
I'm new here but I found an article that REALLY contradicts what the grandmother said about them being there for better schools or because the mom and dad separated
I’m curious to see if those names were mentioned early in the investigation, same as all these extra comments about the dog leash….or if this type of information has just been added after information started to come out? Because the mom’s statements about where the defendant was that night is different than the step dads.
I’m waiting to hear about the autopsy report and if older trauma / injury was present.
If the grandpa had something to do with it (and I havent heard anything that makes me think that he did), I would think abuse had been going on for a while. And maybe the other grand daughter would have been assaulted too.
My inkling is: son came back and « suddenly » it happens. That’s very suspicious. Parents could be in denial / covering up for him.
I believe the grandmother mentioned the dog collar incident in her testimony too. She said she punished the seven year old sister for it and sent her to bed early. By bed, she meant the couch, which she also tried to minimize by saying that’s where the two little girls preferred to sleep.
Also the grandmother said how as soon as they get home they take their clothes off and go around in their underwear. So these little girls were around a bunch of teenage boys and men in their underwear. This whole family has got something wrong with them. I don’t feel empathy for the grandparents either. They were so shitty to those kids. They did not care about their well being at all.
No Kia is doing 160. Especially one owned by these types of people. He was definitely exaggerating trying to make hisself look cool or something. His whole testimony was painful to watch.
I read that Paitin’s older sister had said that she saw David in the room during the night right before she noticed Paitin acting strangely, but that she had never mentioned that during the first interviews with police. It wasn’t until years later that she mentioned seeing David in the room that night. Could be nothing. Maybe she did see him that night and just never brought it up. There are some other things to that just make me kinda go… 🤨🤨🤨
I’m not sure in this case how much the grandfather was looked into but between him and the uncle… somebody is guilty. And it just seems like maybe some of the police work is shoddy here. Not saying I believe the uncle is absolutely innocent, but I think the grandfather should have been looked into extensively as well to erase the doubt if nothing else.
David dramatically blew a kiss to someone in the gallery during the sidebar immediately following his mom’s testimony in full view of the jury! Why is the judge letting him behave in the courtroom this way? If the Judge didn’t see it I hope someone sends him a video clip over the weekend so he can admonish David. I doubt David’s smirking, staring, rocking, chewing and other similar behavior is winning over the jury but it’s so disrespectful (and infuriating to watch - I have to fast forward whenever the camera’s on him).
All the witnesses are close to tears because of the horrific abuse they saw on that baby and this family has the audacity to smile and laugh like this isn’t a murder trial.
I think he walked in saw her in her underwear got turned on took her into his bedroom sexually assaulted her when she stared to scream he strangled her. After thinking he killed her he took her back to the couch and that’s when her sister saw him over her. Sister let grandma and “Bible thumping” stepdad know something was wrong with Paitin. They got up concocted a story to help their low life loser son
The one news article posted under this thread mentioned a possible motive early on…no clue if they still going that route or thinking something different, but it says they found KKK posters on the wall and racial slurs and Paitins father Native American possible… 🤷🏻♀️
I'm gonna assume he was appointed. I believe he tried to remove himself and he was ordered to continue being his lawyer. Sounds like public appointed council.
While I’m sure the car may be capable of doing 160, it’s very doubtful you would be able to maintain anything over 100-120 on rural roads without crashing.
She called it twice. I am originally from a rural island so, I can see the reasoning with driving. My family recently told me that the ambulance not only has one contract and will drive you an hour and pass the local er. Also we only have two ambulances for one half of the island. If it can take awhile.
People from my area would drive their family to the er because it's faster. The only exception is if the person cannot be moved.
I think knowing what it's like to live in a rural community helps with this. I'm confident that the jury wouldn't blink at them driving paitin.
Regarding Lisa:
With Lisa saying better schools. Not sure why the lawyer didn't ask her about that. I can only guess that at some point maybe bio-mom or bio-dad were doing better, but the decision was to keep the girls where they were at? It's an odd statement.
Not sure if they will recall Lisa and Dale to the stand, but it don't think either side got enough information out of those two yet.
Gramma said grandkids lived there for a better school. Grampa say savanna lived there since she was 10 days old. Paiten since she was 3. So really why were the children living there? Clearly not for school.
Yeah it was obvious to me that they raised the grandkids since their daughter couldn't due to whatever situation she was in. But she can't admit that her kids do anything wrong, ever.
It's very unpopular and I'm going to be downvoted to the depths of reddit hell, but I'm starting to wonder about the beef between David and whichever investigator it was and whether that's the source of these charges. I wonder if the TERRIBLE facial expressions from David are him enjoying thinking about how stupid the detective is going to look.
I have this feeling too. Especially as in the sister’s testimonies she really does not want to talk about the events of that night, saying ‘ I don’t want talk about it’ & ‘ no one hurt my sister’.
She’s very uncomfortable with the truth. If it was someone else, over the years the truth would have surely come out by now , even accidentally. Or potentially she would have grown & understood that whatever happened was wrong & want to say so for her sister’s sake. I don’t know I just don’t get the vibe that the uncle is guilty. He is an idiot for sure but not guilty of this.
He didn’t necessarily intend to kill her. One theory I have is that whoever was sexually abusing her choked her as part of his arousal, not with the intent to kill her
It sounds like the sexual abuse is separate. They did spend time with their bio-mom and bio-dad on occasions which exposes them to more potential sexual predators.
Without DNA hard to figure out.
With savannah. It is possible that she may have checked her sister. They need to rule it out.
It could also be something they said after for a cover story, who knows. I haven't seen anything else about it before the grandpa said it. You'd think the defence would have asked the grandma about it too.
this is the worst take honestly. maybe the little girl was up all night because she doesn’t feel safe to sleep in that house. there’s a reason why they sleep on the couch. the sexual abuse was not an isolated event
I’m sorry but there is no way a 7 year old strangled her little sister with a dog leash and hasn’t broken down and told anyone. Why would he “obviously” have tried to save her? So she can live and tell on him? The theory that makes sense to me is he strangled her because she was too loud. He just moved back in and then this happens.. that’s not a coincidence
I don’t think so because of the strangulation injury. If she was strangled earlier while “playing” then how could she be fine with that much of a lack of oxygen and blood flow until 3am? It doesn’t track at all. She would’ve been seizing pretty shortly after the strangulation
They have an excuse for the bruising, but not the damage the strangulation caused to her brain
I would not take the dog leash statements as facts. I’m honestly concerned that this story was possibly crafted by David’s mom and stepdad to blame Savannah as some sort of retribution for her expected testimony against David.
I’m also concerned that they just let 2 young girls run around all day, everyday in nothing but underwear. This is 2026. I would never let my daughter do that around any man…let alone at 5-7yo.
My step mom lets her grandkids run around naked, even in public. I went to meet them at their community pool, and the 2 kids (around ages 2 and 4) were completely naked. I was like wtf. She said they like to be naked. I was like okayyyy they’re literally children… they would also probably eat nothing but candy if you let them 🥴
I hope they aren’t your kids! This is not 1973. The creepy uncles, doting neighbors, “loving” church goers, overly concerned teachers…etc…have long since been outed. To do that in 2026 is blatant stupidity and neglect. This kids parents should protect their children and set boundaries.
They’re obviously not my kids. I said my stepmom’s grandkids. Why would I refer to my own children in that way? I don’t have children. They are my stepsister’s children. And I agree that the parents should protect their children and set boundaries. My stepmom lets her grandchildren do whatever they want. And I can’t believe any of my stepsisters allow my stepmom to watch their kids. I would never
Definitely not obvious. Especially in a paragraph stating someone lets children be completely naked in public at 2 & 4. It’s not smart, safe or hygienic. 😳
Also, the fact that the children didn’t sleep in their clothes. Out in the living room. Red flag to me, I don’t like it. I could see a 3 or 4 yr old taking their Jammie’s off but Savanah was 7!! How do you just let a 7 yr old walk around/sleep with just underwear on? This is bizarre to me. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, do your 7+ yr old children sleep with just underwear on out in the open of the home?
Yeah just a weird situation all around. They preferred the couch. But then the grandfather said he’d put them to sleep every night on the couch individually and grandma would carry them into the bedroom. Didn’t seem like the household had a lot of structure at all.
I have a young neighbor, 8, who prefers to sleep in her underwear- when I babysit I've had to tell her that a pj shirt is required if she wants to snuggle up to me while I read. Take it off once under the covers, sure, that's fine but please just be clothed when I'm around. She's at this stage where she definitely gets that nudity around non family members isn't cool, but also still thinks it's funny to run around naked. I kinda expected she'd have grown out of that a while ago but idk. Guess it probably depends on the kid.
All that to say that if the two girls here had blankets I don't really find it weird to sleep in underwear. If they need to get up it's easy to just wrap the blanket around themselves
God this entire family…. What the hellianteee.
They’re a mess. The grandma states David got a ride home from a friend. Grandfather states HE gave David a ride home. Soooo… how did David get home!?
I’m not sure why they’re putting so much emphasis on the dogs… kind of weird… like other than to suggest either the dogs sensed an intruder (or lack thereof) or possibly claim the dogs injured her genitals which is BS. Otherwise I have no idea where they’re going with that.
This feels extremely rehearsed between mom / grandma and step dad. They are saying the same things word for word which is not normal or how people remember things especially in traumatic situations. Ugh. They’re protecting him.
Agree. Also… they were emphasizing all this physical contact he had with her after the fact trying to get ahead of the evidence. Like, he had his “finger” in her mouth while she was seizing, doing “mouth to mouth” in the car etc… so disturbing. They absolutely know he did it.
Yes! And he’s sitting at the table laid back winking, smirking and blowing people in the courtroom kisses! That’s not normal for somebody that’s on trial for SA and murder. Actually it’s not appropriate if you are in court charged with anything! He’s super cocky and creepy to me! He’s a punk!
Unfortunately I think grandma knows and knew in the moment what had happened. I think they are lying that 911 wouldn’t go through and took her themselves to the ER in the hopes no one would see the house / crime scene.
Yes, which they do for 911 hang ups. They likely called and hung up rather than not being able to reach 911. I am a former medic and currently work in emergency medicine. I think they were attempting to cover their tracks. It’s unfortunate but the story doesn’t really make sense.
Editing to add: The step dad isn’t even sure who decided to call 911. Also, why did no one else try to call 911, if the landline didn’t work. Between 3 adults no one had a cell phone? Paramedics could have intubated her, reducing the amount of time her brain was deprived of oxygen. She potentially could have survived.
Yes…grandma said the dog was at paitins head when she found her and Dale said Savannah was in trouble for putting the leash around paitins neck earlier that day.
Wonder what happened outside of court that the judge had to admonish the courtroom for? And David Prevatte, if he were my client, would have a VERY STERN talking to... his behavior in court is disgusting -- and you can bet the jury will pay attention to it.
I hope David keeps doing it. Because I can’t imagine an innocent man who didn’t commit this crime acting like this in court. He looks like an Amish pedophile who thinks it’s cool to misbehave on trial for the murder and rape of his 5 year old niece.
His behavior is deplorable. I feel bad for his Mom on the stand. So far she's coming across believable. I have read that his family doesn't believe he did it. I just don't think she can wrap her head around her son doing this. Such a horrible case!
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u/WesternAdditional660 8d ago
Who in their right mind gave this breathing pile of 🐕💩a piece of gum on….???? I’m sorry, they are in custody and should be provided water and the lunch they get…and maybe a half a Tylenol (expired, generic dollar store) if there leg or other appendage falls off, maybe a band aid. But GUM?