{"id":56040,"date":"2013-06-05T21:54:44","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T03:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hampson-sentenced-to-25-years\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T15:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T15:49:07","slug":"hampson-sentenced-to-25-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hampson-sentenced-to-25-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Hampson sentenced to 25 years"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hampson\"
Hampson<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hampson, 28, pled guilty to second degree murder for killing Jonathan Hayes, 27, whose body was found by hikers Jan. 14, 2012, in a remote wooded area off County Road T, west of Dolores.<\/p>\n

Hayes, of Dolores, died from a knife wound to the neck and had suffered a severe beating to his head, according to a coroner report. Montezuma County sheriff deputies found blood and the handle of a straight razor near his body.<\/p>\n

Walker accepted the plea bargain, saying, \u201cTwenty-five years for taking a life seems like not much time, but it would be worse for the family if it went to trial because they\u2019d have to live through it (again).\u201d<\/p>\n

At the sentencing, prosecutors and family described Hayes, nicknamed \u201cChubs,\u201d as a young man with a promising future.<\/p>\n

Hayes\u2019 aunt, Caroline Massey, testified, \u201cWe will never fully heal from this tragedy and (we) have a piece of our hearts missing. There\u2019s a long of anguish, and we want justice for our Chubby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grandfather Robert Hayes said, \u201cMore should have been done due to the severity and brutal fashion of this crime. This man cut short my grandson\u2019s life and has no remorse. Our boy was murdered, and our only consolation is that this defendant will forever burn in hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hampson, the defendant, apologized to the Hayes family and to the sheriff\u2019s office for not coming forward sooner. He described a fight with Hayes that became violent and said he learned later that Hayes had died.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got scared about what happened, scared I was guilty, scared to go to prison,\u201d Hampson said, \u201cso here I am today. I apologize to Jonathan\u2019s family. He was a good person and didn\u2019t deserve this. Chubby is in my dreams and we are hanging out. Then I wake up and realize he\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeannie Clark, Hampson\u2019s mother, blamed the situation on a culture of drug use, and she also apologized to the Hayes family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very sorry about Jonathan\u2019s death,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat happened was a series of poor choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Jack Roth said only two people know what happened that night.<\/p>\n

\u201cHayes is gone, and the defendant has told five different stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montezuma County Sheriff Detective Tyson Cox testified that Hampson sought help at a residence a mile from the murder scene. He had a cut on his hand and blood on his clothes.<\/p>\n

When asked if he had hurt himself, Hampson reportedly replied, \u201cNo. People shouldn\u2019t piss me off.\u201d<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hampsondu1-i-syn Hampson, 28, pled guilty to second degree murder for killing Jonathan Hayes, 27, whose body was found by hikers Jan. 14, 2012, in a remote wooded area off County Road T, west of Dolores. Hayes, of Dolores, died from a knife wound to the neck and had suffered a severe beating to his head, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[188,13,131],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-56040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-homicide"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56201,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56040\/revisions\/56201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56040"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=56040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}