Travis Stancil felony case continued until June

A Burke County superior court judge on Monday continued the case against Stanley Travis Stancil, the former organizer of “Dancing with the Burke Stars,” pushing his next court appearance to June 1.

His first time in a Burke County courtroom for this case since his initial arrest in October was brief, just long enough to stand at his seat in the public gallery and hear Judge Daniel Kuehnert grant the continuation.

A grand jury indicted Stancil, 30, of Boynton Beach, Fla., on Oct. 16 of two counts of obtaining property on false pretense and four counts of embezzlement.

The former Morganton resident posted his $10,000 secured bond minutes after turning himself in on Oct. 29.

The charges trace back to when Stancil hosted the productions, “Dancing with the Burke Stars” and “Dancing with the Catawba Valley Stars.” According to court documents, he allegedly advertised them as charity shows before pocketing tens of thousands of dollars.

The documents also state that he obtained a discounted nonprofit rate for renting the J.E. Broyhill Civic Center from Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute. Stancil claimed that Your Big Break Inc., an Arizona-based nonprofit organization, was hosting the charity benefit show.

Court documents say the entity hosting and receiving the funds was Stance Productions, LLC, a for-profit company.

Once he received the news of the most recent continuation, Stancil and his acquaintances, all dressed to the nines, filed out of the courthouse.

RODERICK MURDER CASE

Donaven James Purcell and Chad Allen MacJarrett, each charged with one count of second-degree murder, also had their cases continued this week.

MacJarrett’s lawyer, Bryan Jones, said on April 7, “We’re still waiting on stuff from the crime lab,” before requesting a continuance to Aug. 3.

MacJarrett and Purcell have been in custody since late August, when authorities responded to a reported “cardiac arrest” at Purcell’s residence on N.C. 126, in Morganton.

However, according to search warrants, Purcell stated in a 911 call on the morning of Aug. 22 that it looked as if someone had been murdered, and that blood covered the inside of the mobile home.

During the call, Purcell stated that he believed he’d located Matthew Yury Roderick dead in the bathroom, with a bloody kitchen knife in the connected bedroom.

The medical examiner’s autopsy report said Roderick sustained five stab wounds to the chest, back, and arm. He also had multiple incisions on his right arm and head, as well as blunt-force injuries to the head, torso, arms, legs, hands, and feet.

Purcell, and later MacJarrett, explained that they had been drinking heavily the night before, and neither remembered what exactly happened. Roderick also had high levels of ethanol, or alcohol, in his blood system, according to the autopsy.

Purcell stated he didn’t even remember how he ended up in bed. He claimed he woke up to several missed calls from Burke County Emergency Services.

Upon arrival, officers found Purcell sitting on his front porch, with “a significant amount of blood on his pants, the back of his shirt, and his left hand, but his right hand was very clean, appearing to have been washed.”

Inside the home was an “exorbitant amount of blood,” splattered across the walls and carpets, coating the linoleum floors, and soaking into a small mattress in the primary bedroom.

In the kitchen, investigators reported a smeared spot where someone had either tried to wipe up the mess or slipped.

Investigators discovered Roderick’s body, lying in the bathroom with his blood-stained face pressed against the bathtub. The knife sat on a counter just inside the bedroom, also coated in blood and hair.

Officers discovered MacJarrett’s cell phone and a second cell phone, determined to be Roderick’s, after calling a contact named “Matty Matt” on Purcell’s device.

In an unrelated stop the night before, authorities found MacJarrett not far from the home. The search warrant, filed by Detective Brett Aldred at the Burke County Sheriff’s Office, noted that “he was wearing a pair of socks that appeared to be stained with blood.”

Items seized during the execution of the search warrant included 32 swabs of “red liquid,” two socks, the knife, three cellphones, a pair of “red shorts,” a “red jacket,” three bottles of alcoholic beverages, and part of the back door latch, among other items.