DNA on a sweet potato helps solve a murder 12 years later in Massachusetts

() — More than a decade after 31-year-old Todd Lampley was fatally shot in a Massachusetts home, authorities have arrested and charged a suspect who was identified with the help of DNA on a sweet potato found at the scene. the crime scene, court records show.

Devarus Hampton, 40, pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of murder and assault with a dangerous weapon, Barnstable District Court records show. He was exactly 12 years after the February 27, 2011 murder in the town of Hyannis.

On the night of Lampley’s death, investigators found bullet casings and a sweet potato on the floor outside the window of the room where he was shot, according to an arrest affidavit from the Cape and Islands district attorney’s office.

“Investigators believe this sweet potato was used as a silencing device to muffle the sound of gunshots,” Massachusetts State Police Lt. Matthew Lavoie wrote in the affidavit.

The sweet potato was cut flat on one end, appeared to have a hole carved out of the center, and was “puffy and jagged” on the other end, according to the affidavit.

Although it would be years before investigators could connect Hampton to the sweet potato’s DNA, they uncovered several other pieces of evidence, according to the affidavit.

Phone records reviewed by investigators showed Hampton had exchanged more than a dozen calls and text messages with a man who was at the home with Lampley at the time of the killing, including minutes before and after the shooting, according to the affidavit.

Hampton was also wearing a GPS monitoring bracelet at the time of the murder as part of his probation in an unrelated case, according to the affidavit. Location records for the bracelet showed Hampton was near the home at the time of the shooting, she said.

A few days after the shooting, Hampton was arrested in an unrelated case and refused to speak to investigators when asked about the Lampley case, according to the affidavit.

In 2016, authorities obtained a DNA sample from Hampton without his knowledge by collecting some of his phlegm that he spat into a puddle, according to the affidavit. An outside laboratory found a very high probability that the DNA profiles of a swab from the sweet potato and Hampton’s saliva matched, according to the document.

has contacted the district attorney’s office and police about the delay in charging Hampton, who was arrested Monday, court records show.

Hampton is being held without bond and will have a court hearing on April 5.