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The revelation was one of two last-minute surprises revealed during openings in Hackensack earlier today in the trial of Randy Manning for the murder of Rhian “Kampane” Stoute.
The other is that Manning’s girlfriend — originally charged as an accomplice in the case — won’t be tried. She’s entered pre-trial intervention.
Cory Manning told investigators he saw his brother emerge from the rear of a Tryon Avenue house in Englewood where Kampane’s body had been burned on Aug. 15, 2011, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer told jurors during her opening statement.
As the two talked, she said, Randy Manning displayed an automatic handgun in his waistband.
“Manning approached and told Cory he was at the house ‘to stash something.’ Then he lifted his shirt and showed Cory a .40 caliber Glock,” Grootenboer said.
Delroy Clarke in court today (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
Neighbor Monique Black “heard a series of gunshots about 7:37 in the evening — one POW! followed by three more,” the prosecutor said. “Then she saw a man come out of the house and get into Rhian Stoute’s Chevy Tahoe and drive away.”
A day or two later, Manning saw co-defendant Delroy Clarke with the same handgun, Grootenboer said.
Prosecutors said the Glock was used to kill Stoute. It was never recovered.
Evidence that authorities do have, Grootenboer told jurors, include records of cellphone calls made among Randy Manning, Clarke and Manning’s girlfriend, Natuchka Etienne; eyewitness testimony of a Paramus neighbor who said he saw Manning leave Stoute’s car, with his body in it, on Village Square West; a bloody footprint on boxes that were found under Stoute’s body in the Tahoe, and clothing tied to the murder that was recovered from a Brooklyn storm drain.
The sweatshirt matches one that the Paramus witness said he saw the man running from the Tahoe wearing, she said.
“Randy Manning is a cold and calculating killer who not only ended Rhian Stoute’s life but then tried really, really hard to get away with it,” Grootenboer said.
Manning, a national of Trinidad and Tobago who used to live on Belmont Street in Englewood before moving to Brooklyn, remained calm and nearly inexpressive throughout today’s openings. Clarke, meanwhile, seemed bewildered.
Manning’s lawyer, Tana McPherson, opened her case by challenging the investigators’ tactics.
She pounded on the jury box while counting off the length of her client’s interrogation: “Not one hour, not two hours, not three hours . . . 20 hours!” she shouted.
“They get right up in your face, ‘You did it, you did it, we know you’re guilty, you’re going to prison, you’re a liar’ – not once, not twice – but 50 times,” McPherson said, her voice rising as she got closer to the jurors.
(l. to r.) Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer, defense attorneys Tana McPherson, Kevin W. Roe during today’s openings
(STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
When that didn’t work, authorities threatened Manning’s girlfriend with prison and sought $2 million bail, she said.
The mounting threats against Etienne affected Manning, the defense lawyer said, adding: “He loved her, in his own way.”
On top of that, McPherson said, Manning’s confession contains what she said are several major contradictions of the known facts — including the number of shots fired.
Four bullets were recovered from Stoute’s body, including one that Grootenboer said entered his right shoulder and tore through his heart.
McPherson said Manning told police he fired three times.
Clarke’s attorney, Kevin W. Roe, insisted his client had nothing to do with Stoute’s murder. Clarke is charged with helping Manning escape and concealing evidence, including the weapon.
Rhian “Kampane” Stoute
Roe reminded the jury they have to keep the two defendants separate and that their conclusions “mustn’t involve passions but be limited to the law, the facts and the evidence.”
“The grisly details are going to dominate,” Roe said. “But Delroy Clarke is not charged with this murder.
Clarke,” he said, “denies being present or ever having a weapon.”
“The prosecution describes Manning and Clarke as friends,” Roe said. “That I would describe as some serious literary license.”
He also asked the jurors to question the role of Cory Manning.
“A majority of the testimony will come from him,” Roe said. “Keep in mind – what was his role in the case? Was he more involved than he wants you to believe? Where was he when all this was happening?”
Prosecutors have yet to disclose a possible motive for the murder. Nor have they described the relationship between Randy Manning and Stoute, who had spent the day before the killing shopping together at malls in Paramus.
Where Etienne now fits in the picture is an open question, as well. If she completes Pre-Trial Intervention — meeting terms that include not getting in trouble again — the charges will be removed from her record.
The trial, which is expected to take at least a month, will continue the rest of this week.
Prosecutors said Clarke, a native of Trinidad who lives in Englewood, picked up Manning on Route 4 near Forest Avenue in Paramus after he’d driven the body in Stoute’s SUV to Village Circle West — a street chosen at random – and left it there.
Etienne, who lived with Manning in Brooklyn, was accused of providing a bogus alibi.
A judge in July cleared the way for the trial to begin when he ruled that Bergen County investigators went by the book in getting Manning’s confession.
Superior Court Judge Edward A. Jerejian said that Manning “voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently” signed a Miranda waiver not once, but twice — and was already familiar with the process from a 2004 arrest.
STORY / COURTROOM PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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CLIFFVIEW PILOT BROKE THE STORIES:
- Trial set in Englewood murder of rapper Kampane: The man accused of murdering rapper Kampane, setting his body on fire in an empty Englewood house and then leaving the corpse in an SUV parked on a Paramus cul-de-sac will go to trial in January. READ MORE….
- 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.
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