Amanda Hood

In the early hours of Christmas Eve 2020, a domestic dispute in Albertville, Alabama, ended in the death of Amanda Jean Hood. A 45-year-old White woman, she was found in the apartment she shared with her boyfriend and had died from multiple gunshot wounds.

At about 1 a.m. on December 24, a man named Tevin Hampton, then 28, went to a Mapco gas station at U.S. Highway 431 and Edmondson Street and asked for the police. When officers arrived, Hampton told them to go to his apartment at the Suntrace Apartments on West Main Street. Following his direction, police discovered Amanda’s body inside the residence. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Hampton was taken into custody at the gas station without incident and brought to the Albertville Police Department for an interview. Investigators learned that he and Amanda had been in a relationship for about two years. Albertville's police chief stated that the shooting appeared to have stemmed from a domestic argument between the couple.

Hampton was arrested and charged with murder. He was booked into the Marshall County Jail, where his bond was set at $100,000. On January 12, 2021, a grand jury indicted him on the murder charge. His defense attorney later requested a mental evaluation, and Hampton was deemed competent to assist in his own defense.

Instead of going to trial, Tevin Christopher Markeith Hampton entered a blind plea of guilty to murder in Marshall County Court. During the hearing, Amanda’s mother read a victim impact statement about her daughter, and Hampton’s aunt spoke on his behalf. Hampton also took the stand to make what the prosecutor described as a “long and rambling” statement. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, which the chief assistant district attorney noted was the maximum sentence that could be imposed. The case was resolved with his sentencing in June 2022.