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Kristopher Love (right) was sentenced to death for the murder of Kendra Hatcher (left). |
Dallas hitman sentenced to death in murder-for-hire plot
By: FOX4News.comStaff
Posted: Oct 31 2018 10:12AM MST
Video Posted: Oct 31 2018 03:56PM MST
Updated: Oct 31 2018 04:39PM MST
DALLAS - The gunman who fatally shot a Dallas dentist in a murder-for-hire plot has been sentenced to death by lethal injection.
Prosecutors worked to convince the jury that Kristopher Love will be a danger to the community even in prison. He faces the death penalty for killing Dr. Kendra Hatcher in a 2015 murder-for-hire plot.
Jurors deliberated for three hours before handing down the death sentence. Love showed no emotion when the verdict was read.
In court Tuesday, defense attorneys called detention officers and Love’s relatives to testify as character witnesses. They said he has been respectful and well-behaved in prison since his arrest. His mother said while in prison, he has followed the rules and even got his GED.
Prosecutors described Hatcher as a beacon of light that illuminated others and then told jurors how troubling it was to think that Love’s face was the last thing she saw before he murdered her.
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(February 3, 1980 to September 2, 2015) |
Hatcher’s family thanked the jury then spoke directly to Love.
"You didn't shoot her. You executed my daughter for absolutely no reason in the world,"said Bonnie Jameson, Hatcher's mom. "Your life, I pray someday soon, will end one way or another. And if you received the ultimate, your life - Mr. Executioner - will end peacefully, unlike my daughter's."
“So many nights I’ve laid awake in my bed and thought of my little sister and her last moments on this Earth,” said Ashley Turner, Hatcher’s sister. “$500 and drugs?! Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?!”
Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson said she was elated by the jury’s verdict and contradicted the prosecution team got their hard work. Prosecutors say they’ll now turn their attention to Brenda Delgado, the alleged mastermind of Hatcher’s murder.
The former girlfriend, Brenda Delgado, awaits trial on a capital murder charge. A third person, the suspected getaway driver, also is being held on a capital murder charge.
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Bonnie Jameson, mother of Kendra Hatcher, returned to the stand Wednesday to discuss life without her daughter. (Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer) |
'You executed my daughter': Hit man condemned to die for killing Dallas dentist
Written by Tasha Tsiaperas, Staff Writer
Written by Tasha Tsiaperas, Staff Writer
Updated at 5 p.m. with more details from after the sentencing.
A Dallas County jury on Wednesday condemned to death the hit man in a murder-for-hire plot against an Uptown dentist — a scheme allegedly set in motion by the jealous ex of the victim's boyfriend.
Kristopher Love was convicted last week of capital murder in the September 2015 slaying of Kendra Hatcher, who was ambushed and shot in the parking garage of her Dallas apartment complex.
"For three years, you've only been known as the shooter. I will never call you by your name because you are just the shooter," Hatcher's mother, Bonnie Jameson, told Love after he was sentenced. "You executed my daughter."
Love, 34, was paid in cash and drugs for his part in the meticulously plotted crime that was meant to look like a botched robbery.
"It was planned. It was thought out,"Hatcher's sister Ashley Turner said Wednesday. "It could've been stopped."
Love is the first Dallas County killer sent to death row since 2013, when three people were condemned to die. It took jurors about three hours to decide Love's punishment: lethal injection.
The death sentence will be automatically appealed.
Arguing for the death penalty, prosecutor Kevin Brooks said Love would always be a threat to society and to his fellow prisoners if he were housed with the general population.
"If you put this man in gen pop, he becomes the go-to guy if you want something done," Brooks said.
After the sentence was read in the courtroom, Love's sobbing mother rushed out to the hallway. Several of his other relatives remained in the courtroom, their bodies shaking from crying.
Love didn't show any emotion when the sentence was read and looked back at his family before he was led from the courtroom.
Before deciding on punishment, jurors had to determine whether Love was a future threat to society, which can include prison, and whether there were reasons to save his life.
Defense attorney Paul Johnson questioned the fairness of Love's sentence when the others involved in the murder-for-hire plot won't receive capital punishment.
He said prosecutors didn't prove that Love would be dangerous even behind bars and said the punishment should not be solely about the heinousness of the crime.
Hatcher, 35, was found fatally shot in the head on Sept. 2, 2015, in the parking garage of her Uptown apartment building.
Prosecutors demonstrated how Hatcher must have looked in her final moments: hands raised behind her head to protect herself with her chin tucked. She was shot in the back of the head. The bullet pierced her spinal cord and exited through her chin.
The medical examiner said Hatcher would've labored to breathe during the final minutes of her life.
"She knew as she struggled for breath that she was going to die," prosecutor Glen Fitzmartin said in closing arguments Wednesday. "He needs to feel that as well."
But Johnson argued that Love was the "instrument" for 36-year-old Brenda Delgado, who was said to be jealous of Hatcher's relationship with Delgado's ex-boyfriend, Ricardo Paniagua.
Delgado's capital murder trial has not been scheduled. She can't face the death penalty because of an extradition agreement with Mexico, where she fled after Hatcher's killing.
"Kendra Hatcher was dead the moment Brenda Delgado decided to take her life," Johnson said during closing arguments.
Several witnesses testified during Love's trial that Delgado had asked them to harm or kill Hatcher.
One woman, 26-year-old Crystal Cortes, agreed to act as the getaway driver in exchange for $500. Though originally charged with capital murder like Delgado and Love, she pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of murder in exchange for a 35-year sentence.
Cortes testified against Love and is expected to testify against Delgado.
Prosecutors argued that Hatcher's death was possible only because Love agreed to kill her.
"This wasn't even happening until he said yes," Fitzmartin argued.
Prosecutors painted a picture of a career criminal who first got in trouble at age 17 for stealing a car. Defense attorneys portrayed Love as a model inmate and a beloved member of his family.
Relatives who testified on Love's behalf Tuesday described him as a loving father of three.
They also said his childhood had been disrupted by his parents' frequent breakups. His mother estimated that she and Love's father separated at least 20 times before ultimately divorcing.
Jailers described Love as "peaceful" in the Dallas County Jail and said he caused no problems.
Love hadn't shown much emotion or reacted visibly during the trial until Tuesday when his sister, Meisha Beasley, testified. While she spoke of their bond and childhood, Love stood to leave.
Several bailiffs hurried over to him to put him back in a cell while jurors were escorted from the courtroom. It was about 20 minutes before he was brought back in and testimony resumed.
Prosecutor Justin Lord pointed to that moment during closing arguments Wednesday. He called Love a "cold-blooded, evil assassin" who is "motivated by greed."
"He did somebody else's bidding, put a bullet in Kendra Hatcher's head for someone else," Lord said. "He has no regard for anybody else."
Lord told jurors that Hatcher screamed for her life in the moments before she was shot.
"The last thing she ever saw in life was that," Lord said, pointing to Love. "She saw the face of evil with a gun pointed at her."
By contrast to the man Hatcher's family and prosecutors called "evil," Hatcher was described as a "beacon of light."
Hatcher loved children and traveled to Third World countries to treat underprivileged kids. Her nieces and nephews called her "Aunt KK."
Her friends and family said that her laugh was infectious and she always helped people.
Hatcher's 12-year-old niece wrote about how she felt after her aunt's death. Neil Hatcher read his daughter's words to Love.
"Aunt KK's death made me very shocked and confused," Neil Hatcher said for his daughter.
The girl said the loss of her aunt made her "hide in my room and cry."
Neil Hatcher told Love that he had "introduced me to new feelings of absolute hate and disgust."
"May God have mercy on your soul," Hatcher told his sister's killer.
During victim impact statements, Hatcher's mother transitioned from calling Love "shooter" to "executioner," alluding to his coming demise.
"Your life, executioner, will end peacefully," Jameson said, "unlike my daughter's."
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