TN-Illegal alien admits raping, killing Ala. woman,accomplic
Illegal immigrant admits raping, killing Ala. woman; will reveal accomplice
By Jamie Satterfield
Posted June 18, 2010 at midnight
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Mexico does not issue birth certificates.
The illegal immigrant who confessed to raping and killing an Alabama homecoming queen in a West Knoxville hotel room made a vow Thursday to expose his accomplice.
"That is a promise I make to the family (to) give them some peace," Valentino Vasquez Miranda said via an interpreter in Knox County Criminal Court.
Miranda admitted at a hearing Thursday that he used a master key to get inside a sleeping Jennifer Lee Hampton's hotel room at the Days Inn on Lovell Road and then raped and strangled her in September 2008.
As part of a plea deal approved by Judge Bob McGee, Miranda was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after a mandatory 51-year prison term.
Hampton, 21, was in Knoxville to help train workers at a new Mama Blue's restaurant set to open here. Miranda and girlfriend Rosa Hernandez were living and working at the Days Inn as housekeepers.
Assistant District Attorney Kevin Allen told McGee that the attack on Hampton was a violent one, with guests in an adjoining room reporting a crash against her wall severe enough to shake items in their room. Hampton fought for her life, he said, evidenced by bits of Miranda's flesh under her fingernails.
"The cause of death was strangulation," he said.
Hampton's body was found a week later face-down in Melton Hill Lake near the Solway Bridge. It was Hernandez who led Knoxville Police Department Investigator Steve Still to Miranda after finding his blood-stained clothes, Allen said.
"He told Investigator Still he had a cut on his hand, and that's where all the blood came from," Allen said.
But DNA testing showed the blood belonged to Hampton, he said.
It was DNA testing, however, that led, in part, to Miranda's plea deal.
Allen said testing on Hampton's sweatpants revealed a mixture of three DNA profiles, two of which were from men. One sample matched Miranda's DNA. The other revealed an "unknown male contributor," which authorities suspect was an accomplice, he said. Allen said the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation could not rule out Hampton as a source of the third DNA sample, leaving to speculation whether there was a third suspect in the case.
The TBI compared the unknown DNA profiles to another illegal immigrant who worked with Miranda and Hernandez at the hotel but found no match.
Miranda's plea deal "requires the defendant to submit to a full debriefing, including the identification of (any) others possibly involved," Allen said.
McGee stressed Miranda's promise to serve up the identity of any accomplices as he considered whether to accept the plea deal, noting Miranda must "tell authorities what all went on and identify others involved."
"Do you understand?" McGee asked.
"Yes," Miranda answered.
At a hearing earlier this year, Allen signaled that his office might seek the death penalty in the case. But the Mexican consulate, acting on behalf of Miranda and his family, later questioned whether Miranda was 17 at the time of the slaying rather than the age of 20 as suggested by fake Social Security documents. Under Tennessee and federal law, juveniles cannot be put to death.
To avoid a battle over the issue, Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols declined to authorize what's known as a "death notice" to be filed against Miranda.
Spared death and a lifetime behind bars, Miranda still tarried several hours Thursday before inking his plea deal.
Hampton's mother, Cynthia Senn, said she was told Miranda did not want to face her daughter's loved ones. He relented shortly before a 1:30 p.m. deadline.
Attorney Eddie Daniel already won a civil settlement on behalf of the Hampton family from the Days Inn. The terms have been kept under wraps.
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