BARNSTABLE – Devarus Hampton, 40, of mashpeepleaded not guilty to charges of murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in connection with the death of Todd Lampley, 31 of Hyannis.
Hampton’s arraignment on Monday at Barnstable District Court it was held exactly 12 years later Lampley’s death on February 27, 2011. Around 10 pm that day, he was shot through a bedroom window while at 42 Fresh Holes Road, a yellow duplex in Hyannis.
Lampley, who was a father of daughters and originators Mississippihe was pronounced dead at the scene, becoming the first homicide victim of 2011 on Cape Cod and the second shooting of the year in Hyannis.
In court, prosecutors said police found shell casings and a black cell phone at the scene linked to Marlo Stanfield, a fictional character from the HBO television series “The Wire.” A sweet potato, which prosecutors said had Hampton’s DNA, was also recovered.
“There is even a sweet potato used as a silencer on the television,” said the First District Attorney. Jessica Elumba he said in court.
Edward Fogarty, Hampton Court’s defense attorney, maintained his client’s innocence and said he would mount “a vigorous defense.”
“It’s a very old case. After reviewing everything the Commonwealth now says they have as evidence, we’re confident it will result in his innocence,” Fogarty told the Times.
Court documents reveal more about the night of the Fresh Holes shooting.
Lampley’s girlfriend, his girlfriend’s mother, and another man were home at the time of the shooting, Elumba said. Police interviewed all three and learned the man was watching television with Lampley in the room before he went into the living room where Lampley’s girlfriend was to make a phone call, he said.
“He’s on the phone. Soon after, shots are fired,” Elumba said.
The man gave a blue cell phone to the police, who performed a visual inspection of the phone and obtained call records.
“And the records don’t match. There are several calls missing from the visual inspection of the phone that appear” in the records, Elumba said, including incoming and outgoing calls to Hampton before and after the shooting.
At the time of the shooting, Hampton was wearing a GPS monitor because of a previous crime, Elumba said, and the tracking device placed him at home at the time of his death.
In mid-March 2011, two civilians found a gun in a nearby pond and alerted the police. When police examined the weapon, they found “rounds (that) matched the shell casings found outside” the window of the bedroom at 42 Fresh Holes Road, Elumba said.
“The police then go back and look at the GPS records of this defendant that show the day after the shooting on February 28 at about 11:41 pm, the GPS coordinates stopped him at that pond,” said Elumba.
Why is Devarus Hampton being charged now, 12 years after the murder?
It is unclear what led to Hampton’s indictment.
“I can’t comment here at this point,” Fogarty said.
“I can’t comment specifically on the delay. The evidence is being evaluated as of now,” Assistant District Attorney Russell Eonas told the Times.
The Mashpee suspect blamed Lampley for the 2007 death of 18-year-old Jacques Sellers.
During a 2010 trial, Hampton implicated Lampley in the 2007 death of 18-year-old Jacques Sellers on General Patton Drive in Hyannis.. He told jurors then that Lampley, who lived down the street from where Sellers was fatally shot in the summer of 2007, indicated shortly after the shooting that he played a role in the crime, according to a previous report from the Cape Cod Times.
One of the suspected shooters, Anthony Russ, was acquitted in Sellers’ death. The other, Julian Green, was found guilty of second-degree murder.
During Green’s trial, Lampley denied any involvement in Seller’s murder and was never charged. But at the time of that shooting, Lampley said he was having trouble with two brothers who lived at 36 General Patton Drive, the house where a stray bullet struck and killed Sellers. And on the night of Sellers’ slaying, a police tracking dog led officers to Lampley’s home.
Cape and Islands District Attorney Robert J. Galibois first announced the charges on Friday. The charges stem from an investigation conducted by Massachusetts State Police Detectives assigned to the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office and the Barnstable Police Department, according to a news release.
Judge John M. Julian ordered that Hampton be held without bail. He is due back in court on April 5.
Zane Razzaq writes about housing and real estate. Reach her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @zanerazz.
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This article appeared in the Cape Cod Times: Devarus Hampton of Mashpee charged with killing Todd Lampley in Hyannis