North Carolina man arrested in Daytona after killing gay man is a neo-Nazi

Daytona Beach – The man picked up by police on Daytona Beach for killing a print shop employee at a North Carolina community college says he’s a neo-Nazi who hates gay people.

Kenneth Morgan Stancil III told Raleigh’s WRAL-TV he killed Ron Lane because Lane had made sexual advances to Stancil’s 16-year-old brother. Lane’s cousin, Steven Smith, told that TV station that Lane never made sexual advances toward children or anyone he worked with.

The suspect’s mother, Debbie Stancil, said she knows the relative in question was not molested by Lane, because he and Lane had never met. She believed her son was making the accusation 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 Kenneth Stancil, her son.

“He was verbally inappropriate at school. Very much verbally inappropriate,” she said. “He would tell him to stop and he kept on.”

Stancil was found sleeping on Daytona Beach after travelling more than 500 miles. When officers approached him he pulled a knife but dropped it when an officer drew his gun. He was arrested without incident, according to the police report.

During an appearance in a Goldsboro, N.C., courtroom April 16 to face a pending murder charge, Stancil again accused the victim, who was gay, of improperly approaching minors.

Superior Court Judge Arnold O. Jones II told Stancil he could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.

“I know that. But I knew what I had to do and I knew when I got caught, I knew in my mind I could get life. I could get the death penalty,” Stancil said, punctuating his response with an expletive. Jones told him to watch his language and when Stancil repeated the word the judge ordered law officers to hustle him from the courtroom.

Stancil returned several minutes later and was much more subdued, answering “Yes, sir” and “OK” to the judge.

In a telephone interview April 15 from a Daytona Beach, Fla., jail, Stancil said Lane tried to take advantage of his brother.

“He ain’t physically touched him, but he was in the proposal to try to and I wasn’t going to let that happen,” Stancil said.

Stancil said Lane was looking for Stancil on Facebook and found his brother. A Goldsboro police spokesman did not return a phone message April 16 about that allegation. There were no criminal complaints filed by Stancil family members with either the Wayne County sheriff or Goldsboro police, Wayne County investigations clerk Ellen Grice said. There were no workplace complaints filed against Lane, according to Wayne Community College human resources director Ina Rawlinson.

Stancil said he has no regrets about the shooting.

“I did what I did, and I’ve got to live with it,” Stancil said. “If I get life, I just get life. I’m a murderer, you know, what the hell do I got to care? I don’t give a damn if I go back to society.”

Stancil said he is a neo-Nazi who is concerned about the future of white children.

Stancil gave himself a facial tattoo 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.

“I try to look out for my fellow white people,” he said. “I don’t believe in race mixing.”

He was asked if he hates gays.

“Yes, I do, with a passion,” he replied, though he said that was only one of the reasons he killed Lane, who had been his supervisor in a work study program at the college before Stancil was fired for absenteeism.

Lane was shy, loving, energetic and dedicated to his family and friends, Smith said.

“Yes, Ron was gay. But people need to get over it,” Smith said.

Stancil’s grandparents told WRAL.com that the person described in the news does not sound like their grandchild.

“I have not looked at any news. I have cut my radio in my car off,”Joyce Edwards said. “I don’t want to hear it. What people have told me, that is not my grandson.”

Stancil also told the television station he had killed three other people, including two in the Wayne County area. But the sheriff’s department told the station it has no report of any unsolved homicides that match Stancil’s account.

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