Back in 2015, a murder case out of North Carolina shocked many people, not just because of the killing itself, but because of how the defendant was convicted after a chilling admission, leading to him being sentenced to life in prison without parole.  Kenneth Morgan Stancil III was only 20 years old in April 2015 when he was charged with first-degree murder of Ronald Lane, his former supervisor at the Wayne Community College print shop in Goldsboro, North Carolina. 

During the trial, Stancil, who described himself as a “white supremacist,” admitted to killing Lane and made several disturbing claims against him, including accusing him of being a child molester.

According to a report by Newsabc12, Stancil told the Raleigh Station at WRAL TV that he shot Lane at Wayne County College because he had allegedly made s*xual advances toward his 16-year-old younger brother. He also reportedly told them that he was a neo-Nazi who hated homos*xual people.  

According to the media publication, in a telephonic interview from a Daytona Beach, Florida jail, Stancil claimed that Lane found his brother on Facebook and made advances toward him on the social media platform. However, the defendant reportedly added that Lane never touched his brother. 

During an April 2015 hearing at Wayne County courthouse, shortly after the incident, Stancil did not flinch when the judge told him that a first-degree murder charge could end up in the death penalty. Instead, he waived his right to a court-appointed attorney and openly admitted to the shooting. 

Stancil was forcibly removed from the courthouse after he started shouting expletives at the judge and appeared to threaten the court that anyone he considered a “molester” was basically a target. Stancil’s accusations against the victim were never substantiated with evidence in court. 

In May 2017, two years after the incident, Kenneth Stancil was sentenced to life in prison without parole after a jury found him guilty of murdering Lane. Prosecutors also noted that the defendant was employed at the print shop up until a month before the shooting, before Lane fired him because of excessive absences, WRAL reported at the time. 

Neither prosecutors nor the defendant’s attorney disputed that Kenneth Stancil killed Ron Lane at Wayne Community College in 2015.

However, prosecutors argued that the killing was clearly first-degree murder. The defense, meanwhile, claimed the shooting was not carried out with malice, premeditation, or deliberation, reported CBS17. 

Defense attorney Walter Webster argued that Stancil believed Lane, who was openly gay, had made inappropriate advances toward his younger brother and was a child molester. But District Attorney Matt Delbridge pointed to another motive. He argued that Stancil was angry after being fired by Lane shortly before the shooting.

During the trial, prosecutors also focused on a video Stancil recorded around 2:30 a.m. on April 13, 2015. Just hours later, he went to Wayne Community College and shot his former boss. In the video, Stancil said, “I’m just attracted to killing and hurting people. I’m just attracted to that. I like inflicting pain on others.” He also stated, “I’m going to do the deed. I’ve made my mind up, and I will be happy to spend the rest of my life in prison.”

According to Delbridge, the video showed that Stancil had already decided what he was going to do before the shooting happened. Stancil also said in the recording that he wanted to be feared and respected, even if that came “at the price of spilling blood.” He claimed he was doing a favor for “his family, his race, his people, his nation, and the world.”

Near the end of his closing argument, Delbridge reminded jurors of another chilling line from the video. Stancil had reportedly said, “Next time you see me, I will be on TV, but the person I murdered, killed, they will be on TV too.”

“If you have any doubt about what he intended to do, right there at the end, he really gives it to us,” Delbridge told the jury, pointing to Stancil’s own use of the words “the person that I murder.” The jury deliberated for about 90 minutes before finding Kenneth Stancil guilty of first-degree murder.