Daughter to serve life sentence

Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2009

Prior to sentencing 30-year-old Barbara Hampton, Judge Warren Krug said that what struck him the most during her trial was her "cold-blooded attitude" after she killed her mother.

A jury convicted Hampton on Oct. 31 of first-degree murder and first-degree assault in the beating and strangulation death of her 53-year-old mother, Pamela Sue Varner, at her Westlake Boulevard home in Prince Frederick on Sept. 17, 2007.

During the trial, testimony from the coroner, who examined Varner's body, stated that Varner died of asphyxia with compressions to the neck and chest caused by strangulation.

At the sentencing hearing, Calvert County State's Attorney Laura Martin, who prosecuted the case, spoke of Hampton eluding police and not showing remorse after killing her mother and placing her mother's body in the trunk of her car. Hampton went out partying, shopping and got a tattoo after she killed her mother, Martin said.

"What kills me about this is what she did afterwards when no one was looking," Martin said.

Just prior to sentencing, and after a few moments of silence as her lawyers whispered in her ear, Hampton, through tears, testified on her behalf, apologizing to her family, saying she too missed her mother very much.

"I'm very, very nervous," Hampton said, shaking. The past 17 months have been the worst, she said, and asked the court for mercy.

"I don't expect not to be punished. Don't throw away the key on me. I'm asking you to, at least, send me home one day," Hampton said.

Before sentencing Hampton, Krug spoke about the evidence from the trial which showed that Hampton did not call 911 or stop strangling her mother, but continued on until her mother died.

"We all make mistakes," Krug said. But what is most disturbing, Krug said, is that "you didn't realize you made a mistake until after you got caught."

Hampton's defense attorney, Gregory Gardner of Washington, D.C., argued that he did not think life in prison was appropriate for Hampton because of her young age, that she was a mother of two, and the fact that she has been working to better herself though mental heath counseling and drug rehabilitation programs since she has been incarcerated.

"I do think there's hope that she can be rehabilitated. She can come back to society at some point," Gardner said.

Martin told the court that the case was not about drug addiction or mental health.

"It's about anger and the horror of domestic violence," Martin said.

Kimberly Varner, daughter-in-law of Pamela Varner, testified that the family was asking for life without parole.

"She [Hampton] has forever changed the life of our family," Varner said. Five grandchildren will not receive the love of their grandmother, she said.

charvat@somdnews.com