Source: The Facts, Dallas Voice
ANGLETON, Texas -- Terry Mark Mangum was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday, Aug. 13, for killing a Southwest Airlines flight attendant he met at a gay bar in the Montrose area of Houston in June 2007.
Mangum's defense attorneys told the jury during the trial that their client believed he was doing God's work when he brutally stabbed, strangled, killed, and then buried 46-year-old Kenneth Cummings in a shallow grave.
"I believe he believes God has commanded him and that is the law above all he must follow," his attorney told the jury. "He believes God is going to protect him."
Mangum blinked hard four times when Judge Pat Sebesta read the verdict pronouncing him guilty of killing the Pearland man 14 months ago, The Facts, a Brazoria County newspaper, reports.
Mangum, 27, of Cypress, was convicted of stabbing Cummings multiple times at Cummings’ Pearland home, then trying to clean up the blood before burying the body in a shallow grave on a ranch south of San Antonio.
"Ungodly" was the description offered during the trial by an investigator of the scene where the Cummings's body was uncovered.
Cummings had been dead 11 days when his remains were exhumed at the ranch owned by Mangum's grandfather, prosecutors said. Cummings was buried on his back with knees bent and one protruding from the ground.
His torso remained covered with moist earth, and investigators later learned from a medical examiner some parts were missing.
The partially burned and almost naked body, identified as Cummings by a dental expert, was missing part of an arm, Bexar County Deputy Medical Examiner Kimberley Molina testified at trial.
He'd been stabbed multiple times, Molina said.
Prosecutor Jeremy Warren asked Molina during trial for a definitive cause of death, pointing to the stab wounds to the head and neck, blood in the chest cavity, and strangulation.
"Any of those could have resulted in death," Molina said.
Shortly after he was arrested, Mangum admitted to the crime in a jailhouse interview with a reporter from The Facts.
Mangum told the reporter, who testified during the weeklong trial, that God had called on him to "carry out a code of retribution" by killing a gay man because "sexual perversion" is "the worst sin."
Mangum was calm during the interview last July, Facts reporter John Tompkins told the court.
"He was almost upbeat and energetic," Tompkins said. "He talked as if it was a normal conversation."
But Mangum didn't speak in flowing sentences, said Tompkins, who took one page of notes during the interview. The conversation was not recorded.
"It's hard to recall exactly what he said," Tompkins said. "More or less, he believed he was justified through God in killing a homosexual man."
Mangum told the reporter that he did not seek out Cummings in particular, but did go to a known gay bar in South Houston.
"It just happened to be the one I bumped into," Tompkins said Mangum told him.
When Warren asked for clarification, the reporter replied, "He said, 'it,' not 'he.'"
All 12 jurors took notes as Tompkins spoke, his fellow reporter John Lowman reported for The Facts.
Jurors agreed the crime was hate-driven, believing testimony that Mangum killed Cummings because the victim was gay. Also, since Mangum previously was convicted of a felony, the minimum sentence Wednesday was raised from five to 15 years, Sebesta said. Jurors also assessed a $10,000 fine.
Mangum won't be eligible for parole for 30 years, The Facts reports, and both enhancements will remain part of his record when that time comes, Sebesta said.
A friend of Cummings' who had accompanied him to the gay bar E.J.’s on June 4, 2007, testified that Cummings sent Mangum a drink, The Facts reported. The three played pool and Mangum was flirting with Cummings, the friend testified.
Cummings and Mangum talked on the phone later that night and were captured on surveillance video purchasing beer and wine in a grocery store.
Jurors watched a video tape of the bizarre jailhouse interview during which Cummings offered a series of improbable excuses to explain away aspects of the case, including Cummings' DNA found in his trunk.
In the interview, Mangum claimed that Cummings had voluntarily climbed into Mangum's trunk after they met at the bar.
"He was so drunk he actually jumped into the trunk," Mangum told police.
But police believe Mangum followed the flight attendant from the bar to his Pearland home, The Facts reports.
In closing arguments Wednesday morning, Warren called Mangum a "stupid criminal" who got caught and needed a story to cover his tracks. The reason one psychologist said Mangum was insane was the killing "was so disturbing, even to her," Warren said.
Lead defense attorney Perry Stevens countered that Mangum was delusional and saw the killing as a sacrifice of a gay man and not murder.
Two psychologists testified this week that Mangum was mentally disturbed, with one saying he’s schizophrenic.
Before and during the trial, defense attorneys pointed to Mangum's misguided assertion he was the biblical prophet Elijah or Melchizedek, who was referred to in the book of Genesis as king of Salem and priest of the most high God.
Stevens said after the trial that he was disappointed with the verdict and sentence.
"I respect the jury's decision, but believe this country hasn't put enough into the research of our mental health issues," Stevens said.
Mangum distorted the "God in the Bible" and used that as an excuse to "take a most kind person from his family," David Kirtley, a longtime friend of Cummings, said during the sentencing phase of the trial. Cummings' family will rely on God’s grace to carry them through the loss, he said.
"You brutally attacked Ken from behind, the act of a true coward," he said to an unemotional Mangum.
"Go and spend the rest of your days in jail where you will be able to inflict no pain and suffering on anybody else."
Source: Gay man’s killer gets life | Dallas Voice
Mangum gets life in killing | The Facts
Medical examiner testifies in Mangum trial | The Facts
Jurors see video in Mangum trial | The Facts
Burial scene described in Mangum trial | The Facts