Kristopher Love, the hired hitman convicted last week in the murder of Dallas pediatric dentist Kendra Hatcher, has been sentenced to death.
A Dallas County jury deliberated for about three hours Wednesday before voting to send Love, 34, to death row. His execution date has not been set.
Hatcher's family gave victim impact statements immediately following the jury's decision.
"You didn't shoot her," Hatcher's mother, Bonnie Jameson, said looking at Love. "You executed my daughter for absolutely no reason in the world!"
"Five hundred dollars and drugs, are you kidding me?" Hatcher's sister, Ashley Turner, yelled at Love. "Do you know what she would have given to save her life?"
The sentencing phase of Love's capital murder trial began Monday following his conviction last week by the same jury.
Jurors had the option to give Love the death penalty or life in prison without parole for his role in the murder-for-hire plot.
"He put the gun to the back of her head," prosecutor Glen Fitzmartin reminded jurors. "The back of her head! She's not even facing the individual who did this to her."
Defense attorney Paul Johnson argued for life in prison without parole, saying Love would not be a future threat in prison. "He was a piece, he was a cog in the wheel," Johnson said. "Kendra Hatcher was dead from the moment Brenda Delgado decided she was going to take her life."
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Hatcher was shot and killed in the parking garage of her Uptown Dallas apartment building in the fall of 2015.
According to the prosecution, Love was hired by Delgado, who was the jealous ex-girlfriend of Hatcher's boyfriend.
Delgado later fled to Mexico, before she was arrested and brought back in 2016. She spent a brief period of time on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted list.
Testimony during the sentencing phase Monday included comments from Hatcher's friend and former dental school classmate Tami Patano, who spoke about still struggling to deal with the crime.
"I don't do a lot of smiling anymore. I have isolated myself from a lot of my friends. It has affected my marriage, my ability as a mother. It is affecting everything," Patano said. "And I am not the only one. This is a butterfly effect. Kendra's murder has affected thousands of people."
