GOLDSBORO, N.C. (AP) — The man accused of killing a community college worker said the motorcycle he used to get away broke down along Interstate 95 and he walked 30 miles before a woman headed to Florida gave him a ride, according to a police report released Wednesday.
The woman picked up the 20-year-old Stancil, whose face and neck are covered in dark, self-administered tattoos, was armed with a knife and carried almost $500, the report by Volusia County Beach Safety officers said.
The driver was headed to Key West, Florida, but dropped Stancil off in Daytona Beach, where he was found sleeping on the beach Tuesday morning. When officers approached him, he pulled the knife but dropped it when an officer drew his gun. He was arrested without incident, the police report said.
Stancil is awaiting extradition back to North Carolina, where he is accused of fatally shooting 44-year-old Ron Lane, a print shop director at Wayne Community College. Lane was gay, and authorities said they are investigating a possible hate crime. They haven’t released a motive for the shooting, but Stancil was dismissed from a work study program at the print shop last month.
An extradition hearing was scheduled for Wednesday.
The police report said Stancil voluntarily gave police a statement, which authorities did not release.
During his first court appearance Tuesday in Daytona Beach, Florida, Stancil indicated he killed Lane because his former supervisor molested a relative. Nothing in police records substantiated the allegations.
The suspect’s mother, Debbie Stancil, said she knows the relative was not sexually abused by Lane, as Kenneth Stancil claimed in court, because the relative and Lane had never met. She believes Kenneth Stancil is making the accusations because he is “rattled and confused.”
“He just snapped. That is not my son,” Debbie Stancil, said. “He’s probably out of his mind. I think he needs mental help.”
Debbie Stancil said her son was angry over being dismissed from his work-study job for excessive absenteeism. She also said Lane made sexually laced comments to her son.
“He was verbally inappropriate with Morgan at school. Very much verbally inappropriate,” she said. “He would tell him to stop and he kept on.”
Lane’s brother and sister declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press. College spokeswoman Tara Humphries said she did not know whether any complaints had been lodged against Lane.
It wasn’t clear how long Lane and Stancil had worked together. Stancil was due to graduate from his three-semester-degree course this summer, but he had been a continuing education student before that, Humphries said.
Lane and Stancil were linked — whether they knew it or not — by the suicides of people very close to them. Lane’s partner of 12 years killed himself last year. Stancil’s mother says her son never recovered after finding his father in the backyard after he had killed himself in 2009.
Stancil gave himself a facial tattoo last weekend that included the number “88” on his left cheek. Experts who track hate groups said the number is a neo-Nazi code for praising Adolf Hitler. Neo-Nazis have often been accused of attacking gays, said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Police have not said whether Stancil held white supremacist beliefs or what hate crime they are investigating. Stancil’s mother said the tattoo marked a wannabe rather than someone with neo-Nazi beliefs.
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Schneider reported from Daytona Beach, Florida.
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