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Alleged Triple Murderer Prinshun McClain Guilty in 1 Slaying
Jury deadlocks on two other murders linked to alleged spree killer
This past weekend a St. Louis jury reached a mixed verdict in the triple murder trial of 19-year-old Prinshun McClain, finding him guilty of murder in the second degree in the case of one victim and unable to reach a verdict on charges related to the other two.
The jury determined McClain had murdered Victoria Manisco, a 26-year-old aspiring actress. McClain was accused of shooting and killing her in the Carondelet neighborhood on the night of August 10, 2021, after stalking her as she travelled home on a city bus.
The two mistrial verdicts stemmed from the killings of Terri Bankhead, 27, and her 8-year-old daughter Da'Nilya Edwards. McClain was accused of tying them up and murdering them in the Fairground neighborhood the morning after shooting Manisco. Bankhead and Edwards lived on the second floor of a two-family flat, above where McClain was living with his grandmother.
McClain's alleged motive, according to Assistant Circuit Attorney Natalia Ogurkiewicz, was a desire to stalk, prey on and execute women "for sport."
The RFT has learned that McClain has a criminal history from Texas, including charges of burglary and failing to register as a sex offender.
According to an indictment from Texas' Williamson County, just north of Austin, McClain is accused of entering into a habitation "with the intent to commit theft" on August 6, 2020.
The failing to register charge stems from McClain allegedly not alerting law enforcement in Cedar Park, Texas, of his status as a sex offender. According to the indictment in that case, McClain was previously found guilty of statutory rape in the first degree with a a victim less than 14 years in age.
McClain's criminal history in the St. Louis area came up during his trial. A probable cause statement from police in St. Louis County says that on August 31, 2020, McClain grabbed a woman’s hair and punched her in the head before forcibly taking her phone at a MetroLink Station. That was about three weeks after the alleged burglary in Texas.
In court, Ogurkiewicz said that McClain had been hitting on the victim, and when his advances were rebuffed, he forcibly took her phone.
McClain took the stand in his own defense at his trial last week. He testified that he had shot and killed Manisco, but claimed that he had done so accidentally in the course of a robbery gone wrong. He said that he then gave his brother the weapon used in that shooting.
McClain claimed he didn't have anything to do with the killings of Edwards and Bankhead.
Prosecutors had sought first-degree murder charges in all three cases, arguing that McClain's stalking of Manisco on public transit and his Googling "zip ties" indicated premeditation.
The jury began their deliberation Friday morning and by the end of the day told the judge they had reached a decision on Manisco's killing, but could not reach a decision on the other charges.
The judge called the jury back on Saturday. When they could still not a reach a verdict on the charges related to the killings of Edwards and Bankhead, the judge declared a mistrial on those counts.
McClain is scheduled to be sentenced on the second-degree murder conviction on December 19. The charges against McClain related to the killings of Edwards and Bankhead are still pending; prosecutors could choose to try him again for those murders.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated the neighborhood where the killings of Bankhead and Edwards occurred.
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Ryan Krull
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