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Public Defender Tana McPherson told Superior Court Judge Edward Jerejian that Detective Robert Anzilotti of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office used “invasive, intimidating, and conclusive” tactics to force Manning into confessing during his August 2011 arrest.
Investigators hastily focused on Manning as the last person to see Rhian “Kampane” Stoute alive — and made him their primary suspect when his “incredible, ridiculous” explanation of the day’s activities didn’t add up, Anzilotti testified.
Before then, he said, he had no preconceived notion of who the killer might be.
The veteran detective also said he didn’t follow up on Manning’s allegation that “men from Paterson” robbed the pair and killed his friend because “taken in its totality,” it was “incredulous.”
Manning said “he was with [Kampane] at one time, but not the other,” and then confessed to “burning the body, but not being the one who killed him,” Anzilotti explained.
Jerejian said he would likely set a March trial date if he rejects McPherson’s motion to toss out Manning’s confession. He and his law clerk viewed nearly 19 hours of video recordings of the police interrogation of Manning the past several days.
McPherson, meanwhile, revealed that the Miranda rights hearing could last through the end of the week — and possibly into next week.
Manning, 32, a national of Trinidad and Tobago who used to live on Belmont Street in Englewood before moving to Brooklyn, faces a long list of charges, beginning with first-degree murder. He continues to be held on more than $2 million bail in the Bergen County Jail.
Natuchka Etienne, Delray Clarke (Mugshots: BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR)
Prosecutors said Manning lured Stoute to a vacant house on Tryon Avenue in Englewood in August 2011, after hitting malls in Paramus and stores elsewhere.
Sometime after they broke in, Manning shot Stoute with a .40-caliber handgun several times in the head and chest, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time. Manning then set a fire to try and destroy the evidence, he said.
As CLIFFVIEW PILOT reported exclusively, Stoute was shot once in the head, once in the neck and once in the shoulder.
“The shooting may have been related to a dispute or involvement over money” and not Stoute’s “status as a performer,” Molinelli said.
He said Manning took off in Stoute’s black 2001 Chevy Tahoe after the killing, heading to Brooklyn. He returned to the murder scene the next day, “removed the charred body of Rhian Stoute from the house and placed it into the rear cargo” of the vehicle, the prosecutor said.
He then drove it to Paramus, where he “randomly selected” Village Circle West and abandoned the SUV there, he said.
As he ran from the Tahoe, Manning tossed clothing and other evidence, Molinelli said. Walking up to Route 4 and Forest Avenue, he called and was picked up by a friend, Delray Clarke, of Belmont Street in Englewood, the prosecutor said.
Manning with Public Defender Tara McPherson (STORY / COURTROOM PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
A neighbor called Paramus police just before 8 a.m. that morning to report a suspicious vehicle with New York license plates on the block. Looking through the windows, the responding officers could see Kampane’s body.
An autopsy by the Bergen County Medical Examiner determined that he succumbed to “multiple gunshot wounds” before his body was torched.
An 18-count indictment returned by a Bergen County grand jury in June 2011 names Manning, Clarke and Manning’s girlfriend Natuchka Etienne – who lived with him in Brooklyn and “tried to create a false alibi” for him, Molinelli said.
Altogether, Manning is accused of murder, felony murder, arson, possession of a hangun with the intent to cause bodily harm or death, desecration of human remains, breaking into a house owned by Sulanch Lewis, moving the body, concealing evidence, giving police false information, and stealing Stoute’s SUV.
Authorities say he also induced Etienne to give false information to police.
During today’s Miranda hearing, McPherson claimed that a “little boy who lived next door… saw two people in the back yard dragging the body.”
“Are you aware of that?” she asked Anzilotti.
“I don’t believe the little boy saw the murder,” he responded.
McPherson then criticized prosecutors for not interviewing the youngster after receiving a statement signed by the boy.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer jumped right in:
“Time out,” said Grootenboer (photo below left). “I never got a statement in the discovery, I got a report, I never got a formal statement. If there’s a formal statement the public defender’s office took, I think we’re entitled to it under rules of reciprocal discovery.”
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CLIFFVIEW PILOT BROKE THE STORIES:
- Kampane’s accused killer claims Miranda rights violation: A judge in Hackensack is expected to rule on whether the man accused of murdering rapper Kampane, burning his body and then leaving it in a car on a Paramus side street was properly read his rights before being questioned by police. READ MORE…
Rhian “Kampane” Stoute
- Arrests in murder of rapper Kampane: An ex-con shot the rapper Kampane in the head in a vacant Englewood house, torched the place, then went back to the scene the next day, removed the charred body and left it in the rear cargo of the victim’s SUV on a quiet Paramus street, say authorities who arrested him and two accused accomplices. READ MORE….
- Autopsy confirms rapper Kampane shot before body burned: The rapper Kampane was shot in the head and killed, then torched in a vacant Englewood apartment, by a former city resident who later went back to the scene, removed the charred body and left it in the rear cargo of the victim’s SUV on a Paramus street, say authorities who arrested him and two accused accomplices. READ MORE….
- Burned body of rapper Kampane found in car in Paramus: The man whose burned body was found in the cargo area of an SUV on a quiet Paramus street this morning has been identified as Brooklyn rapper Kampane. In a tragic irony, the hip-hop artist’s revamped website opens with the sound of a police siren. READ MORE….
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Born in Brooklyn, raised in Flatbush, Stoute was related to the producer J Runnah, who has worked with Jay Z, among others.
“It’s all about the game and how you play your cards,” Stoute sang, touting the joys of living and enjoying the rewards of his new-found fame.
He released his first mix tape in 1997, then went on tour in 2000 with J Runnah and Roc-a-Fella, learning the music business, according to his website, iamkampane.com.
He was in the middle of a major promotional push behind his new music video, “What You Drinkin’ On,” a playful tune, complete with one-liners and wordplay about champagne and other spirits. “This is Part One / I’m tryin’ to get to Part Two,” he sings. “Let’s get it on.”
Stoute would have turned 34 two weeks after he was murdered.
STORY / COURTROOM PHOTOSS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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