Crystal Mangum

Crystal Gail Mangum, July 18, 1978, from Durham, North Carolina, is best known for making false allegations of rape against lacrosse players in the 2006 Duke lacrosse case.  Magnum, a black woman working in the sex industry and the accused—white men—created extensive media interest and academic debate about race, class, gender and politicization of the justice system.  

Magnum as arrested in February 2010 on charges of attempted murder of her live-in partner, Milton Walker.  She was convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, injury to personal property and resisting a public officer.

Mangum was found guilty of second-degree murder in November 2013 after she stabbed her boyfriend, Reginald Dye, who died 10 days later.  Arguing that she acted in self-defense, fearing that Dye would kill her.  she was sentenced to 14-18 years in prison.

Early Life

Magnum was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina, her father, Travis Mangum, a truck driver, and her mother, Mary.  The youngest of three children, Mangum attended Hillside High School, graduating in 1996.

In 1996, after filing a police report alleging that, three years earlier at the age of 14, she was kidnapped by three assailants, driven to Creedmoor, North Carolina, and raped.  One of the accused, her boyfriend of 21, which would be statutory rape.  Subsequently backing out of the charges, relatives claimed it was motivated by fearing for her life.  Mangum’s father didn’t believe that his daughter was raped or injured, however, her mother believed it may have occurred—just not in 1993.  Mangum believes it happened when Crystal was 17 or 18, shortly before she made the police report.  Mangum’s ex-husband, Kenneth Nathanial McNeill, believed the incident happened as she said it did.

After graduation in 1996, Mangum joined the US Navy, hoping to operate radios and navigation technology.  She married McNeill while serving in the Navy, but it quickly ended after Mangum reported her husband tried to kill her.  The charge was dismissed when Mangum failed to appear in court.  Magnum served less than two years in the Navy when she was discharged after becoming pregnant by a fellow sailor, with whom she had another child.

By 2002, Magnum returned to Durham, where she worked as an exotic dancer.  Later that year, Magnum was arrested on 10 charges for stealing the taxi cab of a customer she had given a lap dance to, prompting a police pursuit of up to speeds of 70 mph, sometimes in the wrong lane.  She was stopped when she almost ran over a police officer, but succeeded in hitting his patrol vehicle.  Found to have a blood alcohol content over twice the legal limit, Mangum pleaded guilty to four counts of assault on a government official, larceny, speeding to elude arrest, and driving while impaired.  She served three weekends in jail, paying $4,200 in restitution and fees, and given two years’ probation.

In 2004, she earned an associate degree in police psychology from Durham Technical Community College, and enrolled full-time at North Carolina Central University to study police psychology.

Duke Lacrosse Case

In March 2006, Mangum was hired as a stripper at a party for the Duke University men’s lacrosse team.  Arriving in an already intoxicated state, consuming alcohol and cyclobenzaprine, to perform with another stripper at a house rented by three of the team captains, she was involved in an argument with the occupants of the residents and subsequently left.  Mangum became involved in altercation with her fellow stripper that necessitated police assistance.  The officer arriving on the scene took her to a local drug and mental health center where she was about to be involuntarily committed, when, after asked a leading question, made an allegation that she had been raped at the party.  District Attorney Mike Nifong who was up for re-election, pursued the case despite Mangum’s credibility, conspiring to withhold exculpatory evidence that failed to demonstrate Mangum was raped by the Duke lacrosse players.  It took nearly a year for the state’s attorney general’s office to dismiss the charges and declare the players were innocent of charges laid against them by Nifong.

In 2008, Mangum published her memoir:  The Last Dance for Grace:  The Crystal Mangum Story, written with Vincent Clark.  The book gives her account of the events, insisting that she was assaulted at the party and says that dropping the case was politically motivated.  It also tells about her earlier life, reasserting her claim that she was raped at the age of 14.

Legal Issues

Just before midnight, February 17, 2010, Durham police were called to Mangum’s residence by her nine-year-old daughter.  After arriving at the residence, Mangum and her live-in partner were embroiled in an argument, where she supposedly set fire to some of his clothing in a bathtub in the residence.  The building suffered heavy smoke damage and Mangum was arrested on charges of attempted murder, first-degree arson, assault and battery, identity theft, communicating threats, damage to property, resisting and officer, and misdemeanor child abuse.

Mangum remained in jail on a $1 million bond, which was lowered to $100,000 in May and released from jail to live with a friend and 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, and allowed to visit her three children under supervision of social services.  Mangum was arrested again on August 25, 2010, and held on $150,000 bond for failing to comply with 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 felony of arson charge, was not able to reach a decision for it.

After the verdict, Judge Abe Jones sentenced Mangum to 88 days in jail, which she already served, leaving custody up to social service.  Assistant District Attorney Mark McCullough said on January 21, 2011, he would not retry Mangum on arson charges.

Second-Degree Murder Conviction

Magnum was arrested April 3, 2011 after accusations that she repeatedly stabbed and seriously injured her boyfriend, Reginald Daye.  She was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious bodily injury, a class C felony in North Carolina.  Mangum was indicted on a murder charge after Daye died ten days later in the hospital.  Mangum was held in jail on a $300,000 secured bail bond, 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.

Magnum argued that she stabbed Daye in self-defense, having been assaulted by him.  The prosecution argued that forensic evidence supported Daye’s dying statement that he was attempting to get away from Mangum when he was stabbed.

On November 22, 2013, Mangum was convicted of second-degree murder by a jury of seven men and five women.  Judge Paul Ridgeway sentenced her to 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 for release from prison on February 27, 2026.

A story of Daye’s murder was featured in the episode of Wives and Knives, which aired December 12, 2012, during it’s first season on Investigation Discovery.  Magnum appeared in the episode, giving a jailhouse interview to show producers in the summer of 2012.  The interview focused mostly on the murder and not the Duke lacrosse case.  Daye’s murder was also featured in the episode of Fatal Attraction, titled “Toxic Romance”, which aired on TV One on August 4, 2014 (Season 2, Episode 23).  And episode of Snapped, which aired on October 7, 2018, titled “Crystal Mangum”, detailed the story of Daye’s murder.