Bartender: Slain Mecklenburg County man, suspect argued

Drinking a beer, Bryant Kevin Newcomb sat at Lucky’s Bar about two weeks before police found his body in the Dan River in Milton, N.C.

Newcomb finished his drink at the bar while Angela Crowe Stanley, 37, sat at a table.

“They were arguing,” said Tracy Atkins, 32, a bartender at the Caswell County bar. “She was telling him, you don’t need to drink more.”

Atkins said Newcomb wanted to finish his drink and apologized to her for Stanley’s behavior. They left about 30 minutes later.

Investigators found the 44-year-old Newcomb’s body Sept. 11, five days after family reported him missing in Mecklenburg County. Police charged Stanley, his ex-girlfriend, with first-degree murder; Kevin Nathaniel Black, 19, with accessory after the fact; and Mary Jo Terry, 18, with accessory after the fact.

They are being held in Person County while they await trial.

Finding a missing man

Investigators found Newcomb’s teal Chevrolet Silverado at Lucky’s on Sept. 9, according to court documents. The owner of the bar said the truck had been there since Sept. 5.

The keys were locked inside the truck and the windows were rolled up. The responding sergeant noticed a “large amount of blood” in the truck’s bed, according to court documents.

The State Bureau of Investigation processed the truck. They lifted fingerprints and found a bloody dog chain in the truck’s bed.

Newcomb’s family got involved after deputies found Kevin’s car. His brother, Mark, whom everyone calls “Scooter,” said that it took him and 30 other people to find the evidence that led to the discovery of his brother’s body.

He and another brother, Jeff, mapped the location of Kevin’s truck and Angela Stanley’s house. An investigator told them that the truck was too clean to have been off-road. The brothers also knew it had a lot of blood in the bed, Scooter said.

“Knowing the way a person would think, more than likely he’s in the water,” he said. “The most accessible place of that would be in the Dan River.”

On Sept. 11, family members found a blood trail at the wildlife boat landing on N.C. 62 in Milton. They called the police, and an officer spotted Newcomb’s body in the water. Scooter said they stood within four feet of his brother’s body but, thankfully, didn’t see it.

Kevin was face up against a bridge pylon, according to court documents. His feet were chained and padlocked. Another chain was wrapped around his waist and had two 45-pound weight plates hanging from it. Kevin had been shot in the head.

Officers searched Stanley’s Semora, N.C., home that evening. They seized a rifle and swabbed a “pink/red” substance on the living room floor, according to the search warrant.

‘A courteous smile’

Rosemary Newcomb, Kevin’s mother, said she was the last person to see him alive.

On Sept. 5, she called to her son as he was leaving.

“I said, ‘Kevin, what’s the day?’” she said. “He said, ‘Sept. 5.’ Then I said, ‘What was yesterday?’ And he said, ‘Sept. 4.’”

Kevin smiled and said, “Happy late birthday,” she said.

“He was always there for me,” Rosemary said. “(When) he’d come down the road, he always blew the horn and smiled.”

Scooter said Kevin was the second of four sons. He was the type of person who would help someone if they were broken down at the side of the road.

“He was always waving to people,” Scooter said. “He was always the type of person with a courteous smile and a courteous word.”

Scooter said Kevin went out of his way to help people. One time, Kevin filled in for his brother Jeff after a car accident kept him from working, he said. Kevin picked up his work, despite just checking out of the hospital for a broken back.

He raised two sons, who are both Marines. The father and boys enjoyed drag racing, Kevin’s favorite hobby. Scooter said he ran his best race in Roxboro, N.C., where he flew down an eighth of a mile in 6.88 seconds.

Kevin loved the speed, the excitement and the time racing allowed him to spend with his boys, he said.

Family and friends buried Kevin Sept. 20.

A DVD of him played during the ceremony. Pictures of Kevin stared back at those there to pay their respects.

But against that backdrop of memories, his mother had only one thought.

“I just wanted him back,” she said.

Kevin’s house sits nearby Rosemary and Scooter’s homes on Fort Mitchell Road in Chase City.

As Rosemary comes from and goes to her house, she waits for her son’s smile and the sound of his horn.

“I still look for him to come down that road,” she said. “And he hadn’t showed back up.”

• Tomsic is a staff writer for the Danville Register & Bee.