Neo-Nazi Boasted of Murder Plan in “Manifesto Video”
A neo-Nazi who boasted he was “doing my race a favor” by killing an openly gay college instructor has been convicted of first-degree murder by a North Carolina jury.
It took the jury only 90 minutes to reach its unanimous verdict last week in the case of Kenneth Morgan Stancil III, 22, accused of the April 13, 2015, shotgun murder of his former boss, Ron Lane. Stancil, bearing various white supremacy tattoos, faces life in prison for the murder.
The print shop director at Wayne County Community College in Goldsboro, North Carolina, was killed by a single blast from a 12-gauge pistol-grip shotgun before the killer fled the campus on a motorcycle. Stancil was arrested the following day, 540 miles away, sleeping on an ocean beach in Florida.
The killer has “88” — signifying “Heil Hitler” — tattooed on his cheek and a German Iron Cross tattoo on his neck. Investigators also found a white pride flag and Ku Klux Klan paraphernalia in the defendant’s possessions.
After his arrest, investigators also located a 30-minute video in which Stancil talked about plans to carry out the murder. The chilling video, played for the jury, became the backbone of the prosecution’s case, describing the motivation, even though hate crimes charges weren’t filed.
“I left this for y’all so you could see me one last time,” Stancil said on the video, North Carolina television station WNCN reported. “Next time you see me I’m going to be on TV and I’ll probably be sentenced to prison for life.”
Stancil said in the video that, before he was fired from his work-study job in the print shop, he “had urges to kill” Lane, claiming the victim made sexual advances on Facebook toward his teenage brother, the television report said.
“I had to work under this person and put up with his stupidity,” Stancil says in the video. “F------ are f------ morons. I’m doing my world a favor.”
“I’m doing the world a favor by doing this,” the killer said in his “manifesto video.”
Stancil did not take the stand and the defense presented no witnesses.
Defense attorney Walter Webster argued to the jury that, while conceding that Stancil carried out the killing, it wasn’t done with malice, premeditation and deliberation.
The jury didn’t buy those arguments, however.
“I’m doing my race a favor,” Stancil said on the video. “This person had to die. He was poison to the country, poison to my people.”
“Somehow I’m just attracted to killing and hurting people,” Stancil said. “I like inflicting pain on others.”
