On his birthday, man stabs friend, gets beaten to death with bat

If a friend needed help, Stanley Ivy was the go-to guy. He was intensely loyal and always willing to lend a hand, his friends said.

But on Tuesday, a man whom Ivy had tried to help turned on him, according to Ivy’s family. Ivy, 47, was stabbed to death by 31-year-old Whitney Kyle Stovall, according to the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office. Stovall then grabbed a baseball bat and attacked another man before a neighbor turned the bat on him, friends said. Stovall also died, police said. According to his Facebook page, Tuesday was his birthday.

It all started, according to a friend, with a stolen horse. And it ended with two men dead, their family and friends shocked by the violence that unfolded in a matter of minutes.

Ivy is survived by his wife and two children, friends said. Jason Stancil, who called Ivy his best friend of 25 years, said he can’t imagine life without the friend he saw every day.

“He was my flight from God a long time ago,” Stancil said. “He was my angel that watched over me all the time. I am totally devastated.”

Barrow Sheriff Jud Smith requested the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s assistance with the investigation because of the complexity the situation, the state agency said Wednesday. No charges have been filed in the case, and autopsies will be conducted at the state crime lab on both Ivy and Stovall, the GBI said.