Crystal Mangum found guilty of 2nd-degree murder

Story here. Excerpt:

'DURHAM — A jury found Crystal Mangum guilty of second-degree murder Friday for stabbing and killing her boyfriend, Reginald Daye, in 2011.

After Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway sentenced Mangum to 14 years and two months to 18 years in prison, deputies immediately led her handcuffed out of the courtroom.

Mangum’s attorney, Daniel Meir, said she will appeal.

The case was unusual because, unlike most murder cases, the jury heard the victim’s side of the story.

Mangum, 35, stabbed Daye on April 3, 2011, and an investigator spoke with him twice before he died April 13, 2011.
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Mangum took the stand in her own defense and said it was Daye who attacked her with knives by throwing them at her. She stabbed him, she said, after he dragged her out of the bathroom by the hair, straddled her and began strangling her.

Photos of the apartment showed kitchen steak knives scattered throughout the apartment. Blood drops were on the carpet in the hallway where Daye said she stabbed him, but not in the master bedroom where Mangum said she stabbed him.
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Former Durham City Councilwoman Jackie Wagstaff, one of Mangum’s supporters, said she believed Mangum was being punished because of who she was and her name recognition.

In 2006, Mangum accused three Duke lacrosse players of raping her at a party. The charges were later dismissed after the evidence did not back up Mangum’s story. Her accusations tore apart the Duke lacrosse program and resulted in the disbarment of District Attorney Mike Nifong.

Assistant District Attorney Charlene Franks, who prosecuted the murder case, said it was never about Crystal Mangum, the Duke lacrosse accuser.

“It was about Reggie Daye and what happened in April 2011,” she said.'