A former community college student sacked from his work-study job at a print shop last month for missing too many days has admitted to murdering his supervisor.
Kenneth Morgan Stancil III, 20, is the man charged in the slaying, Raleigh CBS affiliate WRAL reports.
The victim was Ron Lane, the 44-year-old print shop manager at Wayne Community College in Goldsboro, N.C., a pleasant town of 36,437.
On Monday morning, just after 8 a.m., police say, Stancil brought a 12-gauge pump shotgun to the school’s campus, went to the print shop and killed Lane with a single shot.
The shooting caused a lockdown on campus. Police used tear gas in one building because they wrongly believed they had Stancil cornered.
However, Stancil had already fled — partially via motorcycle — to Daytona Beach, Fla. (about 500 miles south). Police there found him on Tuesday afternoon. He was sleeping on a beach.
Stancil’s first court appearance, in Florida, included a profanity-laced rant confessing his crime. In the diatribe, the suspect also declared that he had “ridded one last child molester from the Earth” and suggested that Lane had molested a relative.
“Doing time’s the easy part, you know what I’m saying,” the 20-year-old murder suspect added as he was led from the courtroom.
Stancil’s mother, Debbie Stancil, told The Associated Press that Lane, who was gay, had made unwanted, sexually suggestive comments to her son.
“He was verbally inappropriate with Morgan at school. Very much verbally inappropriate,” Debbie Stancil told an AP reporter. “He would tell him to stop and he kept on.”
At the same time, Stancil’s mother said she doesn’t believe Lane has sexually molested any of his own relatives.
Her son is “rattled and confused,” she said. “He’s probably out of his mind. I think he needs mental help.”
Stancil’s mother said her son left a six-page letter and a video behind, which she has given to police.
She also noted Stancil’s father’s suicide in 2009.
As Stancil’s photo shows, he boasts an impressive array of facial tattoos. Among them, reports indicate, is a tattoo featuring the number 88. Such “88” tattoos tend to indicate neo-Nazi or white supremacist views. (The letter ‘H’ sits eighth in the alphabet, see, and the words “Heil Hitler” both start with ‘H.’)
Neither Stancil nor Lane had any criminal record before the shooting.
Stancil carried a 3.6 grade-point average at Wayne Community College. He was studying welding technology and set to graduate in July, according to school officials.
Brent Hood, Lane’s supervisor, told The Associated Press he believed Stancil was upset about getting fired. Hood did not believe Lane’s sexuality factored into the murder.
The Florida judge at Stancil’s Tuesday hearing ordered Stancil held without bond. Stancil told the judge he couldn’t blame him for this decision.
The judge also tried but failed to inform Stancil of his various due process rights including the right to remain silent.
Stancil faces eventual extradition back to North Carolina where he will face criminal charges.
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