Timothy Dumas Sr., left, and Master Sgt. William Lavigne III, right, were found shot to death on Fort Bragg in December 2020. Kenneth Quick, 26, was convicted last week in the killings, in a case that also exposed a broader drug-related investigation tying Lavigne to the 2018 fatal shooting of a Green Beret. (FBI Charlotte)
A high-profile case stemming from the grisly 2020 slayings of a special operations soldier and an Army veteran has concluded, as a North Carolina man was convicted of first-degree murder and a spate of other charges.
Kenneth Maurice Quick Jr., 26, was found guilty this month on eight counts connected to the deaths of Delta Force member Master Sgt. William Lavigne III and Army veteran Timothy Dumas Sr., according to a Justice Department statement.
In addition to the murder charges, he was also found guilty by a federal jury of drug conspiracy, firearms offenses and obstruction of justice. He faces a mandatory prison sentence of life without parole, the statement said. His sentencing is scheduled for August.
Lavigne, 37, and Dumas, 44, were found dead on Dec. 2, 2020, in a wooded training area at Fort Bragg. The killings connected to one of the Army’s most important bases quickly gained widespread media attention. They also became the focus of at least one book.
Prosecutors said the killings were tied to a drug deal involving the three men. Dumas sold cocaine to Lavigne, who accompanied him to meet Quick to sell the drugs. Quick intended to take the cocaine without paying, according to prosecutors.
Quick drove Lavigne to a “trap house” in Laurinburg, N.C., and repeatedly shot him, according to court records the Justice Department cited in its statement.
Quick enlisted Dumas to help dispose of Lavigne’s body in a secluded training area at the base, but when their vehicle got stuck in sand, Quick shot Dumas and fled, the DOJ statement said.
Prosecutors also presented evidence that Quick discussed two potential witnesses against him and the “work” they required. According to the Justice Department, after Quick’s mother informed him that one of the witnesses had been killed, he responded, “Damn, you don’t know how happy that makes me feel.”
The case involving the witness, who was killed in March 2025, remains under investigation, according to Kim Overton, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District Court of North Carolina. Overton told Stars and Stripes that Quick “passed names through jail calls” of potential witnesses against him, but added that there are no pending charges related to the death.
Lavigne spent about 12 of his 19 years in the Army assigned to Special Forces and special operations units, the Army said in information released in 2020.
Dumas was a civilian employee supporting Special Forces units at Fort Bragg who had retired from the Army at the rank of chief warrant officer 3. He deployed four times to Afghanistan during his nearly 20 years of military service.
In 2020, an unidentified defense official told CBS that at the time of their deaths, Lavigne and Dumas were being investigated on suspicion of using and trafficking drugs on the installation.
Lavigne had also been investigated in the shooting death of his best friend and Green Beret, Sgt. 1st Class Mark Leshikar, in 2018.
The death, which was ruled a justifiable homicide, occurred when Lavigne claimed Leshikar came at him with a screwdriver.
No screwdriver was found at the scene, according to investigators, though a pistol belonging to Leshikar was found on a countertop. No charges were filed in the case.
Army records show that Leshikar had cocaine and amphetamines in his system at the time of his death.
Defense Department records released in 2025 through a Freedom of Information Act request showed that Lavigne had tested positive for cocaine, heroin and amphetamines during Army drug tests in 2019 and 2020.
Stars and Stripes reporter Chad Garland contributed to this article.
