A former Englewood resident accused of brutally shooting aspiring rapper Rhian “Kampane” Stoute in 2011 took the stand in his own defense on Thursday.
On the witness stand, Randy Manning described his relationship with Stoute and his family as “close-knit,” calling each other cousins and had been friends since they were teenagers. He said the families knew each other from being from Trinidad and Tobago.
Stoute’s burned body was found in the back of his Chevy Tahoe in on Village Circle Paramus in August 2011. Manning was found guilty in 2014 of shooting Stoute and lighting his body on fire. He was sentenced to life in prison, but the conviction was tossed by an appellate court decision that was upheld by the state Supreme Court in 2020.
During questioning by his attorney, Milagros Camacho, Manning went through the day Stoute was killed, noting they went to several AT&T stores. Earlier testimony by Sgt. James Harris, who works for the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, confirmed Manning had been at at least one AT&T store after he collected surveillance footage. The video showed of Manning at an AT&T store at Garden State Plaza.
Manning also told the court the reason he had been at the abandoned house where the prosecutor’s office say Stoute was killed at. He said he was friends with the family who owned the home and that he wanted to pick up moving boxes for his girlfriend’s mother. According to Manning, he knew they had boxes in the house because he had helped them move and had asked if he could have some of them.
Manning said he told police about going to the house and taking the boxes and that Stoute helped him load boxes into the back of Stoute’s truck.
On cross-examination by Assistant Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer, she grilled Manning about the night Stoute was shot.
Point blank, Grootenboer asked Manning if he killed Stoute and Manning told her that was what he was being told.
She asked him about purchasing a gas can, gasoline, a flashlight, gloves and a lighter at a gas station. Manning said he did buy the can and gasoline but didn’t recall purchasing the gloves or lighter.
Grootenboer also asked Manning about the multiple statements he had given to law enforcement. He admitted several times that things he had told the police were a lie such as he went to Paterson to retrieve $700 he had hidden under a bush and that men from Rock Creek in Englewood had killed Stoute.
She hammered Manning on a statement he had given to retired Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Chief of Detectives, Robert Anzilotti, admitting he had shot Stoute, pulled the trigger multiple times and had done it alone.
The defense rested and closing arguments are expected to be on Tuesday, June 3.