By Stacy Brown NNPA Senior National Correspondent Bill Cosby said his widely criticized admonition that young Black men should “pull their pants up” was less about fashion...

The systemic bias that has historically failed Black people in the USA is no less evident in Canada. That reality is laid bare in the...

Claude Cummings has been unanimously nominated by the NNPA Executive Committee to receive the NNPA 2025 National Leadership Award for outstanding leadership and achievement...

People in the News

Friday, September 12, 2025

People in the News

Friday, September 12, 2025

An Irving man confesses to the brutal murder of a 16-year-old Mesquite student

Family members and friends mourn the death of Shania Gray of Carrollton. Gray was an exemplary and athletic 16-year-old at Horn High School of Mesquite. Franklin Davis confessed to killing the girl along the Trinity River. Davis had pending charges against him for when he was accused of sexually assaulting Gray in 2010; the trial was set to begin in October of this year. Instead Davis had other plans as he created a fake facebook account and pretended to crush on Gray under another identity. He states that his motives were to reveal the truth and prove his innocence regarding the sexual assault case pending against him that Gray accused him of.

“In a jailhouse interview with News 8’s David Schechter, Davis said he was conducting his own investigation to prove his innocence –– including impersonating someone else on Facebook and on the phone. He said he began doing this about a week-and-a-half before Shania was killed.

“I needed to do some kind of footwork myself. I needed to get some kind of evidence, some kind of proof myself to show I did not have sex with her and that she’s lying,” Davis said.

He told investigators that he used a pre-paid cell phone to arrange a meeting with Shania on Thursday after school. But when the teen climbed into the vehicle, she was surprised to find Davis behind the wheel.”

Read more here.