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Kristopher Love (right)
was sentenced to death for the murder of Kendra Hatcher (left).
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Dallas hitman sentenced to
death in murder-for-hire plot
By: FOX4News.com
Staff
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)
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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.
INTERNET SOURCE:
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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)
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'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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