Five-year-old Paitin Fields was found unresponsive at her home in Pender County, North Carolina, on November 13, 2017. She was initially taken to Pender Memorial Hospital before being transferred to New Hanover Regional Medical Center, where doctors discovered evidence that she had been SA. Paitin never regained consciousness and died three days later, on November 16. Her autopsy determined that she had been strangled and SA.

Paitin's uncle, David Wesley Prevatte, who was 19 at the time, said he was the person who found his niece unresponsive and attempted to help her. Prevatte denied killing Paitin, but investigators eventually focused their attention on him. In June 2018, authorities publicly identified Prevatte as a suspect after accusing him of threatening the lead investigator in Paitin's case during a recorded jailhouse phone call while he was incarcerated on unrelated charges. Despite being named a suspect less than a year after Paitin's death, Prevatte would not be charged in connection with her death for more than four years.

Investigators eventually tracked Prevatte to Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, where he was arrested on February 4, 2022, and later extradited to North Carolina. Now approximately 27 years old, Prevatte has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, first-degree statutory grape of a child by an adult, and first-degree statutory offense with a child by an adult.

Judge: Superior Court Judge George F. Jones
Prosecutor: Jason William Smith and Shirley Smircic
Former Defense Attorney: Luther Johnson Britt III — withdrew in March 2026
Defense: Court-appointed through North Carolina Indigent Defense Services

Prevatte remains incarcerated. Although he was initially held without bond following his 2022 arrest, court records indicate his conditions were later modified to a $1 million secured bond, which he has not posted.

Prosecutors initially intended to seek the death penalty, but in 2026 the State filed notice that it would proceed with the case as non-capital. As a result, Prevatte no longer faces execution. If convicted of first-degree murder, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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#DavidPrevatte #PaitinFields #PrevatteTrial #NCvPrevatte #NorthCarolinaTrial #PenderCounty #TrueCrime #NCTrials #TrialTVLive

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