According to NorthJersey.com, a judge on Monday August 22nd kept bail at $2 million for a Brooklyn man accused of fatally shooting an aspiring rap artist in an abandoned Englewood house before setting his body on fire and dumping it in Paramus last week.

Superior Court Judge Patrick Roma also asked Randy K. Manning during a brief hearing in Hackensack if he had secured an attorney. Manning replied that he had not, and the judge advised him that he could hire a private attorney or apply for a public defender.

First Assistant Prosecutor John Higgins also presented the nine charges against Manning, including murder and felony murder, in connection with the death of Rhian "KAMPANE" Stoute, 33, of Brooklyn.

Manning, 30, who was shackled and wearing an orange jail-issued jumpsuit, was soft-spoken when he answered the judge and at times looked down at the floor. A cousin of Stoute’s placed his hands over his eyes and wept during the hearing.

Prosecutors have said Manning shot Stoute multiple times in the head and upper torso with a weapon that fires .40-caliber bullets in what may have been a dispute over money. A weapon was not recovered.

The two men, who knew each other, had broken into an abandoned house at 370 Tryon Avenue in Englewood early Monday evening after having driven to Bergen County from Brooklyn in Stoute’s Chevy Tahoe, stopping at several stores and shopping malls along the way, prosecutors said.

Manning, formerly of Belmont Street in Englewood, set fire to the house to destroy the evidence, fled the scene in Stoute’s SUV and returned to Brooklyn, according to authorities.

He then apparently returned early Tuesday to retrieve Stoute’s charred body, loading it into the cargo area of the Tahoe. He drove to Paramus and randomly chose Village Circle West, a quiet, suburban street, to dump the vehicle, authorities said.

While fleeing on foot, Manning attempted to destroy clothing and other evidence, prosecutors said. Manning walked to the area of Route 4 and Forest Avenue, where a friend, Delroy Clarke, 23, of Belmont Street in Englewood, picked him up, prosecutors said.

Stoute’s body was discovered when a Village Circle West resident reported a suspicious vehicle to the Paramus police.

Clarke and Manning’s girlfriend, Natuchka Etienne, 23, of Brooklyn, have each been charged with hindering apprehension. Etienne was charged for apparently lying to investigators to create an alibi for Manning.

Etienne was released Saturday after posting $10,000 bail, according to Bergen County Jail officials.

Clarke was arraigned at the Bergen County Jail on Monday morning. His $50,000 bail with no 10 percent payment option remained the same, court officials said.

Stoute, who performed under the name Kampane, had released a series of mixtapes and videos starting in 1997. He had opened shows for well-known rappers and was promoting a new single, “What You Drinking On,” at the time of his death.

Tyrone Grant, a retired professional basketball player and close friend of Stoute’s who was at the courthouse, said he recalled seeing Manning last week at Stoute’s mother’s home in Brooklyn, where family and friends gathered to grieve.

Given Stoute’s nature, Grant said he also questioned the chain of events given by prosecutors, including the alleged dispute over money and the Englewood break-in.

“He definitely didn’t show himself to be one of these gangster rappers caught up in being tough and getting locked up and all this foolishness,” he said. “He was actually the total opposite and that’s why people loved him.”

Grant, 34, of Brooklyn, said he’s grappling with the death of a friend he had known since high school.

“Growing up in Brooklyn and having friends die was unfortunately a reality for a lot of us like myself,” he said. “But someone like Rhian Stoute, it hurts me. It doesn’t make sense, especially the cruelty that was behind the death. His was personal and more disrespectful, with hate and anger.”

He said he is considering establishing a foundation called “Kampane for Change” that could offer scholarships to students interested in music.



R.I.P KAMPANE
8/31/78 – 8/16/11