United States Attorney
Northern District of Texas

1100 Commerce St., 3rd Fl.
Dallas, Texas 75242-1699

Telephone (214) 659-8600
Fax (214) 767-0978

LOCAL MAN SENTENCED TO 50 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON, WITHOUT PAROLE, ON FEDERAL CARJACKING, FIREARMS, CONSPIRACY AND TAMPERING WITH WITNESS CONVICTIONS

Defendant’s Mother Sentenced to 30 Months for Her Role in the Conspiracy

Gary Dale Stanley, Jr., of Kaufman, Texas, was sentenced today by the Honorable Jorge A. Solis, United States District Judge, to 600 months (50 years) imprisonment, announced United States Attorney Richard B. Roper. In July, a federal jury in Dallas convicted Stanley on all eight counts of an indictment that charged Stanley and his mother with various charges related to two carjackings in Dallas late last year and the subsequent attempt to threaten the victims in those carjackings.

In imposing the 50-year term of imprisonment, Judge Solis cited Stanley’s violent and dangerous criminal conduct, which engangered the lives of innocent people, and his egregious criminal record, which reflected yet another instance in which he committed a serious crime while incarcerated. Judge Solis reasoned that the stiff sentence was appropriate punishment for the 42-year old defendant, who he characterized as a violent recidivist committed to a life of crime.

Stanley was convicted on two separate counts of carjacking, using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, two counts of tampering with a victim/witness, and two counts of conspiracy to tamper with a victim/witness.

Stanley’s mother, Margaret Menough, 58, was also charged in the indictment. She pled guilty in August to two counts of tampering with a victim/witness and was sentenced last week by Judge Solis to 30 months imprisonment. She was ordered to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on January 3, 2007.

 At Stanley’s trial, the government presented evidence that on the morning of September 21, 2005, Gary Dale Stanley, Jr., a convicted felon and self-professed white supremacist, began a robbery spree in Rowlett, Texas, committing two carjackings, one using a loaded pistol. Minutes after attempting to rob a Rowlett woman of money at gunpoint as she sat in her vehicle preparing
to bring her daughter to school, Stanley then carjacked another Rowlett woman of her vehicle at gunpoint as she prepared to leave for work. The carjacking victim immediately called 911 and informed the authorities of what had just happened to her.

A Rowlett police officer in a marked police unit spotted the vehicle and attempted to stop it. Stanley attempted to flee resulting in a high speed chase; however, he crashed into a utility pole in the process and immediately abandoned the vehicle, with the engine running, and the loaded pistol inside. He then came upon another vehicle, with the keys inside, parked in a nearby driveway and drove away, only to abandon this vehicle in the front yard of another residence a few minutes later.

After jumping fences and running through an alleyway, Stanley confronted his second carjacking victim, a Rowlett school teacher, as she prepared to leave for school. After he took her vehicle by force the second carjacking victim immediately called 911 and reported the incident. Within a matter of minutes, officers with the Rowlett Police Department intercepted the vehicle and another frightening high-speed chase ensued. Stanley even drove though a school yard to avoid the police and, as he re-entered the roadway, he accelerated to a speed in excess of 90 miles per hours, zipping through school zones and passing school buses. In light of those circumstances, the police terminated the chase. Stanley later abandoned the vehicle in a wooded area in Collin County and stole a bicycle from a nearby residence. A Lavon police officer spotted him and took him into custody after he attempted to avoid the officer on the bicycle.

Stanley was originally indicted in October 2005, for the carjacking and weapons offenses and the case was set for trial in federal court in January 2006. In mid-December 2005, however, the two carjacking victims received threatening telephone calls from a female caller, who informed them that it they did not drop the charges and refuse to testify, that their lives, as well as the lives of their family members, would be in danger. State and federal authorities conducted an investigation and learned that Stanley’s mother, Margaret Menough, was the person who telephoned the victims and threatened them. Specifically, the authorities intercepted telephone calls between Menough and Stanley, who was incarcerated at the time, discussing their plans to threaten and intimidate the victims. In January 2006, charges were added to include victim/witness tampering, as well as conspiracy to commit these offenses, against Stanley and Menough.

U.S. Attorney Roper praised the investigative efforts of the Rowlett and Lavon, Texas Police Departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Gary Tromblay and Chad Meacham.

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