An Oklahoma man will spend the rest of his life behind bars after killing his wife a few days before their thirteenth wedding anniversary.
A Rogers County District judge handed Clifton Hampton a life term in prison for the strangulation death of his wife, Christina Hampton. Hampton pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.
"Without a doubt, this guy, he'll die in a cage, but that doesn't bring her back. A lot of lives were affected by this. Certainly at this point, all we can do is bring that part of closure to a good family and a community that she served well," said Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton, according to Yahoo News.
On Oct. 2, authorities were called to the emergency room at Vinita St. Francis Hospital after they suspected foul play in her death. According to investigators, the defendant dropped his wife off, wrapped in a mattress pad, with injuries to her nose and knees.
Initially, Hampton told investigators he found his wife unresponsive at the side of the road. However, the defendant later confessed that he killed his wife after a heated argument the previous night when she called him pathetic and asked for a divorce. Humiliated, Hampton told investigators that he strangled Christina while she lay in bed. When Hampton realized he had taken things too far and Christina still had a faint pulse, he decided to take her to the hospital.
“Although I wanted to see him. I wished he had looked at me. I wanted to go over and slap his face after my statement, but I knew I couldn’t do that, so I tried to behave myself. It’s hard to believe that, you know, 13 years ago, he promised to love and honor and protect her, and then he kills her. Just a few days before their 13th anniversary,” said the victim’s mother, Shirley Vanderpool, reported News on 6.
Family members and friends described Christina as a devout mother of five children, dubbed “Coach Christina” for her presence at most of her children’s football games.
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