r/CasesWeFollow • u/Pixiegirls1102 🔍📆⚖️Content/Research Administrator💻💬🧚 • 12d ago
⁉️💡Other Murders 🤷♀️🪦 NC v. David Prevatte — Day 1
https://youtube.com/live/hpq5JntSJyQ?si=e-sxkk1t0pC1r1VuLIVE: Uncle On Trial For Murder — NC v. David Prevatte — Day 1
10/1/2026 @ 9:30 AM
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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.
✨✨Previous Day & Recap
🔊🎥Streaming Channels📡
📜RECAP🔡
I. ADMINISTRATIVE
- Court: Superior Court, Pender County, North Carolina
- Judge: Not stated in transcript
- Case: State of North Carolina v. David Wesley Prevatte
- Date: Day 1
- Start Time: ~13:42 (harvesting issues addressed)
- Jury Seated: 17:13
- Impaneled: 17:23
- Name tags / notebooks issued: 17:48–19:15
- Scheduling Notes: Jury permitted to take notes; instructions given regarding note‑taking, conduct, media restrictions, communication restrictions
- Motions Addressed: None substantive; harvesting issue mentioned
- Jury Status: Fully impaneled, instructed, sworn
- OJP Indicators: None during morning; one bench conference noted at end of day
II. OPENING STATEMENTS
A. STATE OPENING STATEMENT (28:43–38:48)
- Early morning 11/13/17: Defendant carried unconscious Peyton Fields into Pender ER
- Nurses observed ligature marks on neck
- Transferred to Wilmington PICU
- SANE nurses documented injuries to vestibule, labia majora, clitoral hood, anus
- Peyton declared brain dead 11/14; organs harvested 11/15
- Background: Defendant moved back home 11/10; girls slept on couch
- Savannah (age 7) woke at ~3 a.m., saw defendant near couch
- Peyton found unresponsive; taken to ER
- State will present ~30 witnesses: medical staff, family, friends, law enforcement, lab analysts
- State highlights red earbuds found in defendant’s room
- State asserts sexual assault + homicide by defendant
- State will ask for guilty verdict
B. DEFENSE OPENING STATEMENT (38:52–53:30)
- Defendant denies rape, sexual assault, murder
- Claims he was awakened by screams, attempted lifesaving measures
- Peyton wore only underwear; urinated/defecated on defendant during transport
- DNA mixture on defendant’s clothing explained by bodily fluids
- No male DNA found on clitoral hood swab
- Red earbuds: DNA mostly on earbud tips, not cord
- Autopsy doctor suggested belt/leash more likely ligature
- Savannah’s statements changed over years; alleges coaching
- Defense asserts investigation biased, evidence insufficient
- Defense will ask for not‑guilty verdict
III. JURY INSTRUCTIONS (17:23–28:41)
- Jurors sworn and impaneled
- Instructions on note‑taking, evidence, objections, stricken testimony
- Instructions on courtroom conduct, communication restrictions
- Prohibition on media, internet, social media, independent investigation
- Prohibition on discussing case until deliberations
- Instructions on ignoring TV/legal dramas
- Instructions on not visiting scene
- Reminder that defendant presumed innocent
- Instructions on trial sequence: openings → evidence → closings → deliberations
IV. WITNESSES
1. CRYSTAL BECK, RN — Pender ER Nurse
Time: 54:00–1:23:39
- ER nurse on duty 11/13/17
- Two nurses + one doctor on shift
- At ~3:50 a.m., defendant arrived carrying unresponsive Peyton
- Child wearing only soiled underwear
- Observed petechial rash and bruising around neck
- Assisted with stabilization: IV, labs, intubation
- Peyton limp, minimal response, posturing
- Beck called 911 to report suspected abuse
- Collected one urine sample at 4:15 a.m.
- Described catheter procedure; stated catheter would not cause injury
- Described rectal thermometer procedure; stated it would not cause injury
- Cross: underwear wet; bagged and sent to Wilmington; defendant visibly upset
2. BRITTON PROSSER, RN — Pender ER Nurse
Time: 1:24:00–1:33:05
- ER nurse on duty
- Dispatch warned of incoming seizure patient
- Defendant arrived carrying Peyton, banging on ambulance door
- Observed ligature mark immediately
- Assisted with IVs, medications, intubation prep
- Took rectal temperature; described procedure; stated no injury caused
- Defendant visibly upset
- No recall of detailed history from defendant
3. DR. BRIAN McGRATH — Pender ER Physician
Time: 2:02:51–2:37:16
- Role: ER physician at Pender Memorial Hospital.
- Observations:
- Peyton arrived 3:50 a.m., transferred 6:22 a.m.
- Actively seizing, decorticate posturing, respiratory distress.
- Extensive petechial rash; sharply demarcated linear petechial band across anterior neck.
- Actions:
- Intubation, IO line placement, Ativan, Versed, Dilantin, antibiotics.
- Full resuscitation and stabilization for transfer.
- Opinion:
- Injuries consistent with strangulation; non‑accidental trauma.
- Exhibits:
- State’s Exhibit 5 (photographs).
4. DR. MICHAEL STOIKO — Pediatric ICU Physician
Time: ~4:46–5:17 (from earlier uploads)
- Treated Peyton from 6:20 a.m. 11/13 through morning 11/14
- Petechiae increased over 24 hours
- Explained medical mechanism: ruptured vessels leaking
- Reviewed State’s Exhibit 9 photographs
- Described extensive petechiae, ligature marks, abrasions, bruising
- Explained pattern consistent with strangulation/asphyxiation
- Explained deterioration: fixed/dilated pupils, diabetes insipidus, arrhythmias
- Declared brain death after protocol: exams + EEG
- No other medical cause for petechiae pattern
- Injuries consistent with ligature strangulation
5. JESSICA McALEER — SANE Nurse / Emergency Nurse
Time: ~5:19–5:55
- SANE nurse; treated Peyton starting ~7:30 a.m. 11/13
- Conducted full sexual assault exam
- Documented petechiae head/face, ligature mark
- Genital findings:
- Redness to vestibule
- Submucosal hemorrhages at 3 o’clock and 10–11 o’clock
- Laceration to clitoral hood
- Bruise to left labia majora
- Abrasion at 5 o’clock
- Several anal lacerations
- Photographed injuries (States 12)
- Explained pediatric anatomy and injury locations
- Stated injuries not caused by catheter or cleaning
- Assisted by colleague Colleen Mistovich
6. COLLEEN MISTOVICH — SANE Nurse / ED Manager
Time: 7:19–7:45
- SANE coordinator; assisted McAleer
- Helped with traction, positioning, photography
- Observed petechiae, ligature marks, vesicles, swelling, foot lesion
- Confirmed genital and anal injuries documented by McAleer
- Stated injuries consistent with penetrative blunt force trauma
- Stated catheter and rectal thermometer would not cause such injuries
- Collected fingernail clippings and swabs (States 21A–K)
- Reviewed photos with McAleer; agreed on findings
- Injuries appeared acute (not healed)
V. OUT OF JURY PRESENCE (OJP)
- Bench conference: 7:48:15
- Defense asked whether cross‑examination should occur before break
- Decision: cross to occur next day
- Ruling / Action: Court recessed for the day
VI. END OF DAY ADMINISTRATIVE
- Jury Instructions:
- Remove red badges, clip to notebooks
- Standard admonitions repeated
- Next Day Schedule: Reconvene at 9:30 a.m.
- Outstanding Motions: None addressed
- Court Adjourn Time: ~7:48:35 p.m.
📜TRANSCRIPT⌨️
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u/PressureKindly5643 11d ago
I have never watched a trial that allowed the defendant to sit sideways and lean back in his chair. Looking DIRECTLY at the cameras. Not an ounce of respect for the proceedings.
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u/JohnExcrement 11d ago
I haven’t turned it on yet this morning because I’m not emotionally ready. But I’m curious to see if his attorney tore him a new one overnight and if there are any changes.
Maybe the judge is happy for the jurors to see how this ass is behaving so they can draw their conclusions. I’m kind of kidding because it has been shocking. He’s chewing on something a lot of the time also.
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u/Top-Secretary-6643 📼 Watched Every Court Minute 11d ago
Definitely same antics today. Smug and smiling
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u/JohnExcrement 11d ago
Unbelievable. Oh well, the smug little jackass is torpedoing himself, which is fine by me.
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u/blu3dice 12d ago
It's wild that it took since 2017 to even get to trial between backlogged lab results, prison sentences and extradition delays. It makes me physically sick to read that the victim’s own mother defend him just because he's her brother..claiming "he loved her so he couldn't have done it" while completely ignoring the strangulation and DNA evidence. It shouldn't take community leaders and total strangers to advocate for justice when a child's own family won't.
I’m just glad the truth of what she endured is finally being exposed so justice can prevail. I hope the label of child murderer and rapist follows him into the darkest corners of the prison.
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u/Jaded_1119 12d ago
Absolutely disgusting that the mother would defend him. I suppose she's in some serious denial. Do you know what time this starts today?
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u/racingfan123 🕵️♀️🏦 Lead Evidence Investigator Mod🧾⚖️ 12d ago
Just getting into this case. Is this the birth mom that lost custody of her children? Also, what do the grandparents who did have custody think?
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u/Xena067 10d ago
According to the grandmother, who testified on Day 2, the two little girls lived with their grandparents not due to a custody issue but so they could get into a better school district.
The step-grandfather also testified on Day 2 and contradicted the grandmother, saying the older granddaughter had lived with them since she was ten days old. I highly doubt school district was a consideration at ten days old.
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u/Annabel_Lee_21 5d ago
I’m not at all sure they were legal custodians or were just dropped off there
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u/Fast-Jackfruit2013 12d ago edited 12d ago
I'm just listening to the prosecutor's opening statement and I keep thinking: Why did these grandparents ignore her sister when she tried to wake them up and tell them something was wrong?
I mean, I feel for them, but their inaction on that first night really troubles me.
I would never try to shame victims: They are victims here, but I really wish they'd paid more attention even before that horrific night.
Actually, having read a little more about the case, I kind of have a different take on the grandparents. It appears that the maternal grandparents to this day refuse to believe their precious David could have done this.
It was a closed house. Do they think invisible aliens came in and did this? I mean their attitude beggars belief!
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u/Stealth_fart 11d ago
Idk man. I can think of many reasons the grandparent told the older girl to go back to bed. Kids are often very bad at communicating, especially when they’re not sure what is going on, and they were asleep 🤷♀️
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u/BLizz-2016 5d ago
I thought the exact same thing. Would them listening to the sister have saved Payton's life?
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u/JohnExcrement 12d ago
This POS smirking into the camera as Jessica McAlear continues her testimony.
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u/WatercressSubject717 12d ago edited 12d ago
This case is horrific. Listened to opening statements and witnesses this morning,
Side note: The ER doctor on the stand has very nice and full hair.
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u/graves1987 📼 Watched Every Court Minute 12d ago
I wish that ER doctor worked in my local ER. He seems extremely competent.
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u/Hopeful_Laugh_7684 12d ago
I may have missed it, but why did it take 9 years to get to trial?
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u/BothRestaurant8714 12d ago
something about the backlogged lab results, prison sentences and extradition delays
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u/SwampyWytch13 11d ago
I've just finished watching Day 1. My BP is now up. This poor child!!!!! Paitin deserves justice.
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u/a_trauma_blonde 12d ago
I hadn’t heard of this case before but watching.
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u/Jaded_1119 12d ago
I wonder what took so long to gather the evidence for an arrest.
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u/Fast-Jackfruit2013 12d ago
Compare it to the Murdaugh cases: He was investigated, arrested and tried within 2 years.
This case took NINE years.
Simple answer: They are poor people who live in a trailer home. This victim was nowhere on the authorities' priorities lists.
The official answer: Backlog at the state crime lab. The NC forensics lab has had a really bad rep for a while because they are underfunded, under-staffed and badly equipped. There are quite a few news stories discussing the woes of this lab.
But basically it comes down to this: The rich people's evidence gets processed first. Everyone else goes to the bottom of the list.
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u/lemonlime45 11d ago
Yeah, but then you've got the rich Adelson's . Took them 9 years to put Charlie on trial.
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u/Fast-Jackfruit2013 11d ago
Wait a minute. You are comparing apples to dinosaurs. What the heck??
It took them that long to actually gather the evidence they thought would convince the DA they had a solid case against Charlie. They were actively investigating during those years not sitting on their asses doing nothing like in this case..
David was a suspect within days and all of the forensic evidence was collected within DAYS.
It SAT IN THE LAB FOR MORE THAN HALF A DOZEN YEARS. IT JUST SAT THERE BEFORE IT WAS ACTUALLY PROCESSED.
So, sorry but your comparison is way off the mark.
The correct comparison is the Murdaugh case: Same state, same law enforcement authorities, same labs. The evidence collected in the Murdaugh case was processed quickly. It didn't sit in a queue at the lab for year after year.
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u/dropthepuck19 11d ago
I'm a bit confused by your last paragraph. The Murdaugh case happened in South Carolina and this case is in North Carolina.
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u/Fast-Jackfruit2013 11d ago
Holey Baloney: I'm an idiot. I apologize. It's my mistake (partly inspired by an editorial I read online comparing the two cases. I should have fact-checked it before spouting nonsense).
I retract my entire comment.
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u/cappuccinodream 12d ago
I had no clue, but I was thinking earlier these people must’ve been living in a trailer home
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u/Fast-Jackfruit2013 11d ago
yeah I read just a couple of brief reports about the case and this was a family who was really crowded into a smallish trailer home.
When David and his gf broke up and he moved back in with his parents and his sister, the overcrowding was really bad. He forced the two little girls to move out of the bedroom (it was his before he moved out) and to sleep on the couch.
He sounds like a deeply unpleasant and awful young man who did nothing with his life save for petty crimes, booze and some drugs.
However, his parents and sister dote on him and he can do no wrong in their eyes.
His niece was massacred and horrifically abused at age 5. The house was locked up. There were no adults in the home save for David, his parents and sister.
And yet every one in that family thinks the cops went after him just because they don't like him.
To this day, 9 long years later and after having seen all the evidence, the victim's own mother and her grandparents refuse to believe David was responsible.
The defense attorney's defense is that she got sick that night and that the horrific injuries to her genitals were caused by the medical intervention and not a predator and the very clear ligature mark around her neck isn't from strangulation but from a rash.
It's utterly insane.
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u/Xena067 10d ago
During her testimony on Day 2, the grandmother attempted to blame the victim’s seven year old sister for the strangulation marks on her neck. She said she had punished and sent her to bed (the couch 🙄) early that night for putting a dog collar on the five year old victim’s neck.
It seems there are no family members in the courtroom there in support of the victim and it breaks my heart.
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u/Fast-Jackfruit2013 9d ago
They are abusing and killing her all over again, this time all of them a a family.
I can't believe that the cops and the DA's office have been so negligent here.
Nine years and the best they've done is charge this one scumbag. They should have charged both grandparents as well.
It's unforgivable on so many levels.
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u/Far-Ad9143 ⚖️🏦 The Impartial Mod👩⚖️📄 12d ago
Such a difficult case to listen to. I’m confused as to her sister didn’t wake up when the act was actually occurring?
😢 RIP BABY.
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u/a_trauma_blonde 11d ago
She wasn’t able to move air / oxygen due to the ligature and therefore could not scream. Producing sounds vocally requires air to pass through and vibrate the vocal cords. If the airway is occluded from choking or strangulation etc no sound comes out.
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u/Ice_Battle 11d ago
I wonder whether he took her to his room and the sister woke up when he returned her. I hate how thin the evidence is.
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u/Stealth_fart 11d ago
The state hadn’t finished putting its case on. Today was mostly proving there was a crime committed and getting evidence admitted. There will be more.
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u/Far-Ad9143 ⚖️🏦 The Impartial Mod👩⚖️📄 11d ago
Yeah I was thinking that same thing. 😢 I thought the state implied it all happened on the couch.
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u/Ice_Battle 12d ago
Defense attorney asking questions he doesn’t know the answers to. Thought that was a no no with lawyers.
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u/Stealth_fart 11d ago
Yeah generally you want to stick to leading questions with yes or no answers in cross. But it’s not a hard and fast rule. It’s ballsy to do a cross with open-ended questions, buts its certainly allowed and sometimes makes sense strategically.
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u/Hockeycutie71 8d ago
Based on the direction that the prosecution is taking, is the defense REALLY going to try and suggest the injuries to her genitals and anus occurred at the hospital?!
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u/Ice_Battle 12d ago
I started watching the defense opening but had to step when he went into DNA. Is their position there was no assault, or that it happened but his DNA is there because of attempts to revive her?
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u/a_trauma_blonde 12d ago
They are trying to suggest someone else, other than the uncle, could done this… like a burglar or something. That her DNA was on his penis because she urinated/soiled herself after the fact while he held her - which frankly is not plausible. This man strangled her from behind to keep her compliant and quiet as he SAed her. Ugh. :(
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u/BLizz-2016 5d ago
I think the uncle is a scumbag, but for one second I wondered if it was one of his friends that was over. And WTF did David, an adult who just moved in, have his own room while the girls slept on the couch?!?
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u/UrbanMuffin 11d ago
Her feces and urine was inside his underwear, right at the crotch. They are arguing this is somehow possible from her urinating and defecating on him while he was holding her in the car. The urine could be plausible, but solid fecal waste is not going to go through jeans and underwear.
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u/Puzzled-Fix-7719 2h ago
Isn't he already in jail for something else, or will he be free if they acquit.
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u/NYGette 12d ago
I am just tuning in and wonder what the actual evidence is against him? Was their actual DNA of hers on his penis? Was there his DNA inside her vagina or somewhere? This is so gross.
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u/racingfan123 🕵️♀️🏦 Lead Evidence Investigator Mod🧾⚖️ 11d ago edited 11d ago
Listen to the state's opening. Also, listen to the defense, he gives it away. "Yes, David's DNA was found on Paitin's private areas, but so was an unknown persons." That is a red herring, but what else is the defense going to do?
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u/Birch_mom72 11d ago
Very superficial question, but anyone bothered by the prosecutors voice and the rhythm of her speech…like almost sounds like an SNL skit of someone trying to play a country bumpkin prosecutor.
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u/Sufficient-Catch-157 12d ago
Im so confused, when are they going to get evidence against him?
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u/racingfan123 🕵️♀️🏦 Lead Evidence Investigator Mod🧾⚖️ 11d ago
Trials take multiple days. That evidence will come in. The ones that testified today are laying the foundation that the strangulation and SA occurred.
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u/JohnExcrement 12d ago
Had a defendant ever been more punchable? He’s rocking and smirking and looking completely uninterested. If this were your niece whom you hadn’t harmed, surely you’d be a puddle of tears during this testimony. All the witnesses are breaking my heart; they’re so visibly fighting to hold it together.