Inquest offers motive in St. Charles stabbing

A 28-year-old St. Charles man stabbed to death in September was attacked after he refused to leave a "bunk house" for carnival workers, a detective testified Wednesday.

Naromi N. Mannery died of a chest wound Sept. 22 after being stabbed three times at the house in the 900 block of West Main Street. Three men have been charged with his slaying.

St. Charles Det. Troy Peacock testified at an inquest that Mannery had followed several men to the residence, which is owned by a local carnival company, early Sept. 21 and was involved in an altercation when he was told to leave.

Mannery was then stabbed in the back, chest and arm with a "small pocket knife," said Peacock, who described the residence as a boardinghouse for carnival employees.

"He was told only bunkers could stay," Peacock said.

Toxicology tests showed Mannery was drunk at the time, Deputy Kane County Coroner Karin Broten said. He died at Delnor-Community Hospital early the next morning after collapsing nearby on the 1000 block of West Main Street.

Authorities have charged brothers Arthur Manning, 57, and Guy Manning, 51, and Willie Wimberly, 55, with first-degree murder. Police said all three men were living in the bunk house and working for the carnival company when Mannery was killed.

The death was ruled a homicide Wednesday by a coroner's jury.