Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

RALEIGH – The United States Attorney’s Office announced that yesterday, Senior United States District Judge W. Earl Britt sentenced GEORGE LINCOLN STANLEY IV, 47, of Durham, North Carolina, to life imprisonment for kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

GEORGE LINCOLN STANLEY IV was convicted on December 8, 2015 by a jury following a trial in federal court before Senior United States District Judge W. Earl Britt.

The investigation showed that the victim had been kidnapped from his home after returning from attending a boxing match in Las Vegas. The kidnappers lay in wait at the victim’s house and, after beating him badly, took him to a storage unit where he was held and tortured. Crime scene technicians recovered the kidnappers’ fingerprints, as well as the victim’s blood, within the storage unit. Zip ties were still attached to a chair within the storage unit and the victim’s personal identification was located on a nearby table. The victim, who was severely injured with a swollen eye, broken leg, ligature marks on his wrists and ankles, and duct tape still on his face and neck, was located by law enforcement on a rural dirt road in neighboring Nash County, North Carolina.

At trial, the evidence showed an elaborate scheme to target and kidnap the victim in order to steal money from him. The defendant, along with his co-defendants, broke into the victim’s house when they knew the victim would be out of town. The defendants waited in the victim’s home and attacked the victim when he returned. The defendants ransacked the victim’s home looking for money. The defendants demanded money of the victim, kidnapped him, and took him to the storage unit where they assaulted him and demanded more money. A large sum of cash was taken from the victim. At the time of his arrest, STANLEY had over $21,000.00 cash in his pocket.

The investigation was handled by the Raleigh Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Raleigh/Wake City-County Bureau of Identification, State Bureau of Investigation, Wake County Sheriff’s Office and Johnston County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dena King and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Holbrook represented the government. Mr. Holbrook is a prosecutor with the Wake County District Attorney’s Office. Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman has assigned Mr. Holbrook to the United States Attorney’s Office through a grant program which allows him to prosecute federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force criminal matters.

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