Phelps Follower Receives Life for Hate-Crime Murder

A Texas man convicted of killing a male flight attendant was given a life sentence and was also found guilty of a hate crime.

Terry Mark Mangum, 27, of Cypress, killed Kenneth Cummings, 46, because he “hated homosexuals” was the Wednesday verdict delivered by a jury.

Mangum had only been out of prison for three weeks, after serving a 5 year sentence for burglary, when he met Cummings at a Houston bar on June 4, 2007. 

Prosecutors proved on the night they met, Mangum slit Cummings’ throat and stabbed him in the back of the head, breaking 1.5 inches of a knife blade.  Mangum then cleaned up the house and drove Cummings’ body to a ranch about 30 miles south of San Antonio.

The partially burned body was found in a shallow grave in a dried-up stock pond on June 16 of last year. Investigators said Cummings’ credit card, which had been taken along with his wallet and car keys, was used to buy a flashlight, charcoal, gasoline and other items.

Mangum pleaded not guilty due to insanity. One psychologist said he was “a cauldron of hate.” Another said he wanted to “rid the world of a harvest of sin.”  Jeremy Warren, the prosecutor saidm “The sin he focused on was homosexuality.”  Mangum has been associated with the infamous church of Fred Phelps.

It only took the jury a little over an hour to return with a guilty verdict and only 30 minutes to return a life sentence.  They also imposed a $10,000 fine.

The prosecutor said Mangum will be eligible for parole in 30 years.  He also said capital murder charges, which carry the possibility of the death penalty or life without parole, weren’t filed in this case because prosecutors weren’t sure they could prove the killing was part of another crime.