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Whether two people charged as accomplices will be tried with ex-con Randy K. Manning or separately remained an open question following a hearing in Hackensack yesterday.
Natuchka Etienne and Delroy Clarke are both accused of helping Manning (above, left) try to conceal the killing of the rapper, whose real name was Rhian Stoute.
Rhian “Kampane” Stout
Prosecutors said Clarke (above, right), 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 Stout’s SUV to Village Circle West — a street chosen at random – and left it there.
Etienne, who lived with Manning in Brooklyn, is 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 a confession from Manning.
In denying a bid to throw out the 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.
Investigators said Manning confessed to shooting Stoute after a shopping trip to the Garden State Plaza in August, 2011. They said he then fire to the body in an attempt to destroy the evidence, returned to the house the next day and moved the body to Paramus, where it was found.
As Stoute’s parents watched yesterday, Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana deAvila-Sileba set dates in November and December for hearings on severing the trial, in addition to other matters.
The judge told the attorneys to be available Dec. 10, 11, and 12 “and the entire week, if necessary” to complete any legal proceedings necessary to start the trial by January 28. She scheduled jury selection to begin Jan. 7.
Manning, 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, Delroy Clarke (Mugshots: BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR)
Sometime after they broke into the Englewood house, 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.
Molinelli 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 Clarke, the prosecutor said.
A neighbor called Paramus police just before 8 that morning to report a suspicious vehicle with New York license plates on the block. Looking through its 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 against the trio was returned by a Bergen County grand jury in June 2011.
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.
STORY / COURTROOM PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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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.
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