Stancil's brother testifies in trial
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on April 30, 2017 12:20 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Attorney Walter Webster, left, cross examines Nick Stancil, right, at the Wayne County Courthouse Friday during his brother Kenneth Morgan Stancil III's trial. Morgan Stancil is on trial for the shooting death of Ron Lane on the campus of Wayne Community College in April 2015.
Kenneth Morgan Stancil III's younger brother Nick Stancil testified in the elder Stancil's first-degree murder trial Friday.
Much of the younger Stancil's testimony centered around what his brother was like leading up to when Stancil shot and killed Ron Lane April 13, 2015.
But he also testified about alleged inappropriate contact between himself and Lane.
Since Lane's death, there has been a multitude of allegations about him being inappropriately involved with Stancil's younger brother, who was 16 when Stancil shot and killed Lane.
Nick Stancil, who is now 18, cleared up many of the allegations with his testimony Friday.
In short, the extent of contact between himself and Lane was when Lane added him on Facebook and liked two of his photos. One of the photos was a headshot of Nick, and the other was of Nick shirtless on a boat, he testified.
But there were never any sort of Facebook messages exchanged or inappropriate in-person contact, Nick Stancil testified.
"None at all," he said.
Stancil testified that he accepted Lane's friend request on Facebook because he planned to go to Wayne Community College, and thought the more contacts he had at the school, the better. He also said he attended video game summits on the campus, and thought Lane might be involved with those.
During defense attorney Walter Webster's cross-examination of Stancil's brother, he asked the teenager about Lane having a large number of younger friends on the social media site.
Stancil denied this, saying he didn't remember that being the case.
Instead, he testified that he only deleted Lane off Facebook after he heard his mother and Stancil discussing Lane being inappropriately involved with younger people.
"She (my mother) didn't come and talk to me, she was kind of talking to Morgan (Kenneth Stancil) about him and I was listening," Nick said. "(She was saying) he likes young guys that are under 18, and stuff like that."
The defense team did not present any evidence Friday of any alleged inappropriate involvement Lane had with younger people.
The younger Stancil's testimony also revealed that his older brother tattooed his face about a month or two before killing Lane.
Additionally, his testimony challenged the theory that Stancil has ties to white supremacy groups.
"If he is a white supremacist, I don't see it," Nick Stancil said.
Webster substantiated this by taking to a line of questioning that revealed Stancil had black and Hispanic friends, according to Nick Stancil's answers to Webster's questions.
The argument was that the older Stancil could not be a white supremacist since he had friends of different races.
But evidence presented by District Attorney Matt Delbridge of photographs of items belonging to the older Stancil showed many possible ties to white supremacy groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan.
Among those photographs was one of a jacket belonging to Stancil with a patch saying "I'm proud to be white," and another saying "A friend will help you, a brother will help you bury the body."
More photographic evidence of items recovered from a barn behind where Stancil lived was introduced, and among them were photos of a "White Pride Worldwide" flag recovered from a gun case in the barn.
Also recovered from the barn, which was shown to the jury through photographs, was a box with "KKK" written on the top and "God, duty and honor" written on the bottom, as well as an honorary member of the KKK certification.
Nick gave testimony saying much of the white supremacy memorabilia originally belonged to the boys' father, Kenneth Morgan Stancil Jr., who took his own life in 2009.
Testimony was also given by several law enforcement officers who responded to the Stancil home in Dudley the day of the shooting and executed search warrants.
This revealed Stancil lived in his grandparents house, and his mother and brother lived in a trailer also on the property, but separate from the grandparents' house.
Goldsboro Police Department investigator Arthur Patelos testified to what he discovered during executing a search warrant on the house where Stancil lived.
Upon searching Stancil's bedroom, he said they found the jacket with Boy Scout and white supremacy patches on it, as well as a cell phone, knives and other items.
During Webster's cross-examination, he focused heavily on the Boy Scout patches, as Stancil had earned the rank of Eagle Scout.
Chris Crawford also provided testimony, as he was an investigator with the Goldsboro police at the time of the incident and searched the barn where the gun case with the "White Pride Worldwide" inside was located.
Crawford is now with the state Department of Motor Vehicles License and Theft Bureau.
His testimony revealed several hand-written notes were found at the barn, but a photograph of one of the hand-written notes was not allowed into the trial as evidence.
That note read "Sorry things had to end this way," and was stuck to a Natural Light beer box outside the barn, but after Webster questioned its authenticity, saying it was impossible to determine who wrote that note, it was disallowed entry into evidence.
The other note, of which a photograph was allowed as evidence, was written on a white table inside the barn, and it said "Victory Day 4-13-15."
Webster objected to this being allowed as evidence also, saying it would unfairly prejudice the jury against Stancil, and claimed again you could not tell who wrote the note.
Regardless, a photograph of the note written on the table was allowed to be presented to the jury as evidence.
The trial stopped Friday after Delbridge ended his direct examination of Crawford as a witness.
Stancil's trial will resume Monday with Webster's cross-examination of Crawford.