Stan Stanisclasse, 23, came to David Lewter’s West Palm Beach boxing gym in 2008, wanting to pick up some fighting techniques. Lewter was a boxing and kickboxing coach, and soon he began to see that the young man had real potential for success.
“He trained hard, he worked hard,” Lewter said. “He did what was asked of him, no questions asked.”
It wasn’t long before Stanisclasse had progressed to winning fights and entering competitions.
Just four years after first walking through the door, he was the 2012 State Golden Gloves Tournament champion for his weight class. The same year, he attempted to qualify for the Olympics but was eliminated by another fighter. Stanisclasse also trained himself in wrestling and mixed martial arts.
But Darrell Telisme’s career wasn’t going as well. He, too, had chosen Lewter’s gym as a launching pad and arrived there in 2010. His first mistake was bragging about how strong he was.
Lewter had him step into the ring with Stanisclasse, one of the best fighters there.
“Stan put a beating on him,” recalls the coach.
Undaunted, the 24-year-old Telisme kept coming back for more. The two had quite a few friendly matches, and the fact that he always lost only made Telisme more obsessed with challenging the champ to yet another encounter. Their growing rivalry intensified when the vastly more talented boxer refused to allow him a chance to fight for one of the titles he held.
Sensing that the feud between them was getting out of hand, Stanisclasse began to feel unsafe. He even asked a friend to lend him a firearm to protect himself from Telisme, whom he knew to be armed much of the time, and said he was considering buying one of his own.
On November 25, 2015, the two of them and a friend went out for pizza in West Palm Beach. After a few drinks, Telisme and Stanisclasse got into a heated argument about which of them was stronger. Stanisclasse said he could beat Telisme and agreed to a friendly fight.
They took it outside, where once again Stanisclasse got the better of him. Afterward, everything seemed fine. The group moved on to the Roof Top Lounge, where they drank some more, and the two boxers continued commenting back and forth about who was the better fighter. The three men said their goodbyes early Thanksgiving morning at Stanisclasse’s Palm Beach Shores apartment, and Telisme left.
But he wasn’t over it yet. At about four o’clock in the morning, he returned with another man and knocked on Stanisclasse’s door. His rival responded from inside, “The fight is over. It’s squashed.”
Telisme insisted that he come out. When Stanisclasse did so, fearfully insisting that Telisme first lift his shirt, he killed him with one shot to the head from a Colt .45 automatic pistol.
He then fled from the home and called a friend, telling him, “I didn’t mean to do it, I’m sorry.” After giving that person his home address, he said he would wait there for police.
Investigators found the murder weapon in his bedroom and took Telisme into custody. He told them that part of the evening was a “blur” because he had too much to drink.
Telisme was charged with first degree murder and carrying a concealed firearm.
“Mr. Stanisclasse held several championship titles but refused to accept a challenge from Mr. Telisme,” Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office investigators wrote in an affidavit. “Mr. Telisme felt he was missing his opportunity to advance in the boxing community.”
According to an arrest report, Telisme was angry that Stanisclasse was stronger than he was and wanted revenge after Stanisclasse had beaten him in a friendly fight that Wednesday evening.
“It’s really pretty pathetic and silly,” Lewter said of the shooting. “I can’t imagine what it was in his mind that made him think this was a better option than just letting it go. Because what’s the win here? Going to prison for the rest of your life?”