Christopher Lamar | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

Christopher George Theodore LAMAR

Classification: Murderer

Characteristics: Robbery

- Drugs

Number of victims: 1

Date of murder: May 11,

1996

Date of birth: November 15,

1971

Victim profile: Ronald Jones

Method of murder: Shooting

Location: Peoria, Arizona, USA

Status: Sentenced to death on June 1, 2001

ADC# 159213
Date of Birth: November 15, 1971
Defendant: Hispanic
Victim: African American

Lamar's girlfriend brought the victim to her Peoria apartment where Lamar and his accomplices were waiting.

There, Lamar beat the victim, then held him at gunpoint while his accomplices robbed him of his cash and street drugs. Lamar ordered his accomplices to bind the victim with duct tope. They held the victim hostage the entire afternoon and into the night. The victim cried and pleaded for his life during the ordeal.

Lamar made derogatory comments concerning the victim's race then put him, still bound with duct tape and pleading for his life, in his own car. As they drove to another part of town, Lamar sat in the rear seat, holding a gun to the victim's head.

When they arrived, Lamar took the victim from the car and shot him in the head twice, killing him. Lamar and his accomplices put the victim's body in the car trunk and eventually brought it to an abandoned lot and buried it.

They took the victim's valuables from the car before setting it on fire and abandoning it. Lamar joked about the body in the trunk before disposing of it, and later bragged about the size of the gunshot holes in the victim's head.

PROCEEDINGS

    Presiding Judge: Stephen A. Gerst
    Prosecutor: Cleve Lynch
    Defense Counsel: James Cleary Christopher DuPont
    Start of Trial: November 15, 1999
    Verdict: December 10, 1999
    Sentencing: June 1, 2001

Aggravating Circumstances:

    Pecuniary gain
    Especially cruel, heinous and depraved
    Committed while on supervised release from prison

Mitigating Circumstances:

    No statutory mitigating circumstances found.
   Non-statutory mitigating factors found, but insufficient to call for leniency:
    Defendant's mental health issues
    Dysfunctional family/difficult childhood
    Good character

PUBLISHED OPINIONS

[Direct Appeal pending before the Arizona Supreme Court]

STATE OF ARIZONA, Appellee
v.
CHRISTOPHER GEORGE THEODORE LAMAR, Appellant.

Facts:

In May 1996, Christopher Lamar (Lamar) was dating Myla Hogan. Lamar and Hogan met and first became involved sometime that April. While the two were involved, Hogan lived with several people in a house on 81st Avenue in Peoria including: Mary Keovorabouth, Ouday (aka Tim) Panmany, Vincent Macchirella, Richard Valdez, Coyle Brown, and Abraham Hermosillo. No one who lived in the house in Peoria worked. Keovorabouth, Panmany, Hermosillo, and Macchirella earned money by selling drugs. Macchirella also sold rottweiler dogs. Hogan had no source of income.

On May 11, 1996, Ronald Jones left his house around 1:00 p.m., telling Alicia Sosa, his live-in girlfriend, that he planned to deliver documents to a loan company. At some point, Hogan called Jones’s pager and asked Jones if he would like to go to lunch. Hogan and Jones knew one another through Keovorabouth. Jones picked Hogan up at her house on 81st Avenue, and the two ate lunch together at Sonic.

When Hogan and Jones returned from lunch, Keovorabouth, Hermosillo, Macchirella, Valdez, Panmany, and Lamar were all at the house. About a week prior, the group had devised a plan to jump Jones, steal his possessions, and scare him so that he would stop spending time with Hogan.

When Jones entered the house, Lamar confronted him about his relationship with Hogan. Jones responded that he did not know that Hogan was Lamar’s girlfriend and denied any involvement with her. Lamar stated that Jones had messed up. Lamar punched Jones, Jones fell to the floor, and Macchirella pointed a gun at him. Lamar ordered Hermosillo to get some duct tape. Hermosillo retrieved the tape and tied his hands and ankles.

Lamar, Macchirella, and Hermosillo then moved Jones into a bedroom and took whatever possessions Jones had including his shoes, jewelry, fifty dollars, and some rockcocaine. Lamar demanded the gun from Macchirella, explaining that he had done this before. Jones cried and pleaded for his life, offering his possessions and a check if they would let him go. The group then led Jones upstairs and held him captive while everyone watched television and took turns guarding Jones with the gun.

Once it became dark, Lamar and the others led Jones downstairs and to the passenger seat of his own car. Lamar directed Macchirella to drive to Lamar’s old neighborhood, near 35th Avenue and Broadway. Lamar sat behind Jones in the car, holding a gun to Jones’s head. Hermosillo, Panmany, and Valdez followed in a stolen pick up truck but stopped along the way. At one point, Lamar pulled the trigger, but the gun did not fire. When Jones heard the click of the gun he cried and pleaded for his life.

After driving farther down the road, Lamar directed Macchirella to stop the car. Macchirella stopped the car and pulled over to the side of the road near a vacant lot. Lamar ordered Macchirella to open the trunk and Macchirella complied. Lamar then shot Jones twice: first in the back of the head and then in the forehead after Jones fell to the ground. Lamar and Macchirella picked Jones up and placed him in the trunk.

Hermosillo, Panmany, and Valdez were approximately one block away when they heard gunshot sounds. Lamar had already shot and placed Jones in the trunk when Hermosillo, Panmany, and Valdez arrived at the scene. Someone asked what happened, and Lamar responded by opening the trunk and pointing to Jones’s body. The group decided to move Jones’s car and bury his body. Hermosillo retrieved a shovel, and at Lamar’s direction Macchirella dug a hole. Lamar, Hermosillo, Panmany, and Valdez then dragged Jones’s body to the grave and buried him, covering the hole with dirt and brush.

Jones’s car would not start so they pushed it to a gravel pit where they decided to bury the body. Lamar and the others removed some belongings from Jones’s car including a cellular phone, a radio, a CD player, a toolbox, and a tool belt. They then made a gas bomb and set Jones’s car on fire.