A Wisconsin man will spend decades in prison after shooting and killing his Pizza Hut manager, whose body was discovered stuffed in a bag behind the business.
On Friday, Kavonn Ingram was sentenced to 45 years in prison for the murder of Alexander Stengel, aged 55. Ingram pled guilty in August to first-degree reckless murder.
Before being sentenced, Ingram admitted responsibility for his actions following the killing, claiming he was attacked first and acted in self-defense, according to local CBS affiliate WDJT.
“I take responsibility for my wrong actions taken after the altercation at Pizza Hut,” he informed us. “However, the events leading up to the altercation, as well as the physical fight, caused me to act in survival mode.”
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Michelle Havas did not buy it.
“Frankly, I don’t believe you,” Havas told the newspaper. “I don’t believe for one second that this was anything but a cold-blooded execution of someone who worked for 33 years for crappy wages at Pizza Hut, because it’s what he could do.”
The murder began on February 3, when Stengel showed his coworkers, including Ingram, a huge roll of cash – part of a $7,000 bequest, Law&Crime reported at the time.
Two days later, Ingram shot Stengel in the head in the kitchen of the Pizza Hut on North Chicago Avenue in Milwaukee, then placed the body in two garbage bags, hauled it out back, and disposed of it in a dumpster.
He attempted to clean up the murder scene and used Stengel’s phone to notify Stengel’s regional manager that he was not feeling well and would be going early, clocking Stengel out of work. Ingram then boarded the bus home.
The murder was discovered two days later when a trash truck driver called the cops about a rubbish container that appeared to contain a body.
Police discovered the body wrapped in a plastic bag.
“Officer Hesse could see shoes attached to feet and legs sticking out of the can and underneath the plastic bag,” according to court hearings.
There was a pool of blood underneath it. The body left a trail of dried blood that led to the restaurant’s back door. Officers discovered a “portion of the tiled kitchen floor” in the restaurant that was “uncharacteristically clean.”
In the closet, detectives discovered “coagulated blood/flesh on the bottom of the slop sink,” a bloody mop, and an apparent blood smear on the closet light switch.