Crystal Mangum

Early life

Mangum was born and grew up in Durham, North Carolina, the daughter of Travis Mangum, a truck driver, and his wife Mary. She was the youngest of three children.

In 1996 she filed a police report alleging that three years earlier, when she was 14, she had been kidnapped by three assailants, driven to Creedmoor, North Carolina, and raped. One of those she accused was her boyfriend, who was 21 at the time. She subsequently backed away from the charges, a move relatives claimed was motivated by fear for her life. Mangum's father said he did not believe she was raped or injured, though her mother believed such an incident could have occurred—but not in 1993. She thinks it is more likely to have happened when Crystal was 17 or 18 years old, shortly before she made the police report. Mangum's ex-husband, Kenneth Nathanial McNeill, believed the incident occurred as she said it did.

After graduation from high school in 1996, she joined the US Navy. She trained to operate radios and navigation technology. While serving in the Navy, she married McNeill. Her marriage quickly broke down. She reported to police that her husband had threatened to kill her, but the charge was dismissed when she failed to appear in court. She served for less than two years in the Navy before being discharged after becoming pregnant by a fellow sailor, with whom she went on to have another child.

By 2002 Mangum had returned to Durham and was working as an exotic dancer. In 2002, she was arrested on ten charges after stealing the taxicab of a customer to whom she had given a lap dance. This prompted a police pursuit at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour, occasionally in the wrong lane. After being stopped, she nearly ran over a police officer, succeeding only in hitting his patrol vehicle. She was found to have a blood alcohol content of just over twice the legal limit. Ultimately, she pleaded guilty on four counts: assault on a government official, larceny, speeding to elude arrest, and driving while impaired, serving three weekends in jail, paying $4,200 in restitution and fees, and being given two years probation.

In 2004 she gained an Associate's degree in Police Psychology from Durham Technical Community College, and subsequently enrolled full-time at North Carolina Central University to study the subject.

Duke lacrosse case

In March 2006, she was hired as a stripper at a party organized by members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team. After arriving, intoxicated, with a fellow stripper at a house rented by three of the team captains, she became involved in an argument with the occupants of the house, and left. She then had an altercation with her fellow stripper that necessitated police assistance. At this point she made an allegation that she had been raped at the party. District Attorney Mike Nifong, up for reelection, pursued the case despite questions about the credibility of Mangum, and conspired to withhold exculpatory evidence that failed to demonstrate that Mangum had been raped by the Duke lacrosse players. It took almost a year for the state's attorney general's office to dismiss the charges and declare that the players were innocent of the charges laid against them by Nifong.

In 2008, Mangum published a memoir, The Last Dance for Grace: the Crystal Mangum Story, written with Vincent Clark. The book gives her version of events. She continued to insist that she was assaulted at the party and says that the dropping of the case was politically motivated. The book also outlines her earlier life, reasserting her claim that she was raped at the age of 14.

Arrests since lacrosse case

Just before midnight on February 17, 2010, Durham police were called to Mangum's residence by her nine-year-old daughter. When they arrived, they said they found Mangum and her live-in partner, Milton Walker, fighting. She reportedly set fire to some of his clothing in a bathtub in their presence. The building suffered heavy smoke damage. They arrested Mangum on charges of attempted murder, first-degree arson, assault and battery, identity theft, communicating threats, damage to property, resisting an officer, and misdemeanor child abuse.

Mangum was ordered to remain in jail on $1 million bond. Her bond was lowered to $100,000 in May, and she was released from jail to live in a friend's house. She was required to wear an electronic monitoring device. On July 12, 2010, she was released from house arrest and required to move in with her mother. She was allowed to visit her three children but only under supervision of social services. Mangum was arrested again on August 25, 2010, and held on $150,000 bond for failure to comply with the restrictions on her child visitation order.

On December 17, 2010, Mangum was convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, injury to personal property and resisting a public officer. The jury deadlocked 9–3 for not guilty on the felony arson charge but was unable to reach a decision on it.

After the verdict, Judge Abe Jones sentenced Mangum to 88 days in jail, which she had already served, and left the custody decision in the hands of social services. Durham Assistant District Attorney Mark McCullough announced on January 21, 2011, that he would not retry Mangum on arson charges.

Second-degree murder conviction

Mangum was arrested on April 3, 2011, following accusations that she repeatedly stabbed and seriously injured a boyfriend, Reginald Daye. She was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflicting serious bodily injury, a class C felony in North Carolina. Ten days later, Daye died in the hospital, and Mangum was indicted on a murder charge. Mangum was held in jail under a $300,000 secured bail bond, which was set prior to her boyfriend's death. On November 1, 2011, Mangum was deemed competent to stand trial for murder.

On May 1, 2012, Mangum's attorney withdrew, citing the release by Mangum of confidential information regarding her case to her supporters. On February 20, 2013, Mangum was released on bail until trial.

At the trial, Mangum argued that she stabbed Daye in self-defense, as she was being assaulted by him. The prosecution argued that the forensic evidence supported Daye's dying statement that he was attempting to get away from Mangum when he was stabbed.

On November 22, 2013, she was convicted of second-degree murder by a jury of seven men and five women. Judge Paul Ridgeway sentenced her to serve a minimum of 14 years, 2 months and a maximum of 18 years in prison. According to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, she is projected to be released from prison on February 27, 2026.

A version of the story of Daye's killing was featured in an episode of Wives with Knives, which aired December 12, 2012, during its first season on Investigation Discovery. Mangum appeared in the episode, having given a jailhouse interview to the show's producers in the summer of 2012. The interview focused mostly on the murder and not the Duke lacrosse case. Daye's murder was featured on an episode of Fatal Attraction, called "Toxic Romance", which aired on TV ONE on August 4, 2014 (Season 2 Episode 23).