Punishment phase coming this week after man pleads guilty to murder
A Lubbock District judge will decide the punishment of a man who admitted to his role in the 2019 slaying of a 79-year-old Slaton man whose body was found northwest of Abernathy.
David Hampton, who was initially charged with capital murder in the Aug. 3, 2019 slaying of Celestino Rodriguez, appeared Wednesday before Judge John McClendon in the 137th District Court and pleaded guilty to a count of murder.
Hampton, 57, fought back tears as he signed plea paperwork including a judicial confession before standing beside his attorney, Phil Johnson, in front of the judge to formally enter his guilty plea.
He spoke softly as he answered the judge's questions about the voluntariness of his plea and paused before telling the judge he was pleading guilty because he was guilty and for no other reason.
However, Hampton's plea was not a result of a bargain with the Lubbock County District Attorney's Office. Instead, he opted for McClendon to determine his punishment, which ranges from 5 years to life in prison. A bench trial is set for this week.
The plea comes a year after McClendon granted a mistrial in a July 2022 non-death penalty capital murder trial after multiple potentially prejudicial statements against him were heard by jurors from prosecution witnesses without the court's approval.
Hampton, who has been held at the Lubbock County Detention Center since Aug. 15, 2019, is one of seven people charged in connection with the homicide case that initially began as a missing persons case when Rodriguez's family reported him missing. However, he is the only one who was charged with capital murder.
Heather Casias and Brett Garza are each charged with murder. Freddie Salinas of Abernathy and James Andrew Anderson were charged with tampering with a corpse. Toby Daughtry and Amanda Blagburn each face a count of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, a state jail felony that carries a punishment of six months to two years in a state jail facility.
Anderson pleaded guilty in December 2020 in exchange for a 10-year prison sentence. Blagburn also pleaded guilty to her charge in exchange for a 12-month sentence.
Planning a killing
During last year's trial, prosecutors told jurors the evidence at trial will show that Casias hatched a plan with Garza to rob Rodriguez, who Casias knew was about to get a monthly benefit check.
She said Rodriguez met Casias, who worked as a prostitute, at a game room where he spent a lot of time at game rooms after his wife died nearly a year before.
Meanwhile, Garza recruited Hampton to help with the robbery during which they beat and killed Rodriguez. Then Garza brought in Salinas and Anderson to move Rodriguez's body to Abernathy.
During the trial, Jurors heard from Rodriguez's daughter, Norma Wallace, who said her father had been spiraling in depression as he grieved the death of his wife nearly a year before.
In the weeks before his disappearance, she said she noticed signs of her father's further decline.
"He was coming home with bruises," she said. "There was money missing out of his account. He seemed a little bit more angry and lost."
She said on Aug. 3, 2019, her father left for Lubbock telling her he was getting an oil change for his car - a white Chrysler 200. She said he never came home and she knew something bad had happened to him.
"I knew the day my dad didn't come home that something was wrong," she said.
As police searched for Rodriguez, his family found that his debit card was being used in multiple stores in Lubbock.
Security camera footage from the stores showed two men, later identified as Hampton and Brett Garza using Rodriguez's card.
Garza was arrested Aug. 14, 2019, on a warrant charging him with debit card abuse.
When investigators spoke with him he revealed the plot Casias devised to rob Rodriguez of his debit card. He reportedly told investigators that Casias knew the PIN number to Rodriguez's card and gave it to him and Hampton.
He said Casias lured Rodriguez to a field on private land near the intersection of Erskine Street and FM 179 where he and Hampton confronted Rodriguez and beat him until he was unresponsive. He died shortly after.
Garza led investigators to a secluded location in Abernathy where he, Salinas and another man left Rodriguez's body, which was in advanced stages of decomposition.
In an Aug. 15, 2019 news release announcing Garza's arrest, police officials said Hampton was still at large and was believed to be in Lubbock but was able to move about without being discovered.
That same day, Hampton surrendered to police in Abilene when he learned about the arrest warrant for using Rodriguez's debit card. There, he met with Lubbock police detectives who wanted to interview.
Hampton initially told the detectives he wouldn't speak with them without an attorney. However, when detectives told him about a second warrant charging him with murder, he, unprompted, admitted to using the debit card, saying he was a drug addict and needed drugs, but repeatedly denied being involved in Rodriguez's death.
"I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, sir," he could be heard telling the detective. "But I would not, could not, kill no one."
Testimony at trial
Jurors heard from state witnesses who said Hampton told them he was involved in Rodriguez's death but was an unwilling participant.
Hampton's niece told jurors that her uncle told her he was involved in Rodriguez's death and was distraught and upset about what happened. She said her uncle told her he and Garza didn't expect Rodriguez to fight back and said he hit Rodriguez once on Garza's orders but couldn't continue hurting the man, saying he began to see his father's face on Rodriguez.
Meanwhile, Anderson told jurors that Garza summoned him to the Tech Inn where he learned about the fatal robbery. He said Hampton was there and was distraught about what happened and was angry with Garza for how the robbery ended.
Anderson said Garza admitted to killing Rodriguez and threatened him to help move Rodriguez's body. However, he said he also promised to pay him money and drugs if he helped.
Anderson initially told jurors Garza took sole responsibility for Rodriguez's death. However, he recanted that statement, saying he was trying to help Hampton.
Anderson told jurors that while he was being held at the Lubbock County jail on the tampering charge, he and Hampton were in the same pod and discussed Rodriguez's death.
He told jurors Hampton reportedly told him that when they robbed Rodriguez, the elderly man attacked Garza and Hampton reportedly put an arm around Rodriguez's neck to pull him off Garza. He said Hampton reportedly told him he felt Rodriguez's last breath and that the man died in his arms.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: David Hampton pleads guilty to murder in 2019 fatal robbery
