Teen Gets Life for Murder of Restaurateur

Yazmin Arambula spoke through tears Thursday as she pleaded with a Ventura County judge to hand down a life sentence to the man who fatally shot her husband during a bungled kidnapping attempt last summer.

“I just want to say he deserves to be in prison for the rest of his life,” the visibly shaken widow told Superior Court Judge Vincent O’Neill.

He then sentenced William David Hampton Jr. to life in prison, along with a consecutive 25-year sentence for using a gun to commit murder.

Hampton, 19, was convicted in February of first-degree murder with special circumstances, attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, burglary and assault with a stun gun in the death of Felipe Arambula, 35, who owned the Taqueria Vallarta restaurant in Ventura.

Before pronouncing sentence, O’Neill allowed Arambula’s relatives to address the court. Arambula’s wife, father and sister spoke at Thursday’s sentencing hearing, trying to explain how their loved one’s death has affected their lives.

“David Hampton didn’t hurt us physically,” Yazmin Arambula said. “But psychologically, it feels as if he shot us in the heart as well.”

“Though we are alive,” Ignacio Arambula, the victim’s father, said through an interpreter, “the whole family feels we have been dead for 10 months.”

Authorities believe Hampton was the gunman in a botched attempt to kidnap Arambula from his Monte Vista Avenue home June 13.

The motive for the kidnapping is unclear.

But authorities said Hampton and Manuel Vasquez detained Arambula’s wife in the couple’s bedroom for several hours until Arambula returned. The restaurateur struggled with his attackers before being shot six times.

Hampton told authorities that another man, Jose Vazquez, 37, of Camarillo, hired him to conduct the kidnapping allegedly over money the restaurant owner owed Vazquez. The kidnapping, however, was not supposed to end in death, Hampton said.

Hampton, a Casitas Springs resident, waived his right to a jury trial in February and instead agreed to have O’Neill decide if he was guilty based on evidence presented at a preliminary hearing.

The Arambula family told O’Neill that they were never interested in seeing Hampton get the death penalty for his part in the slaying, a punishment he was eligible for because the murder was committed during the commission of felony offenses--residential burglary and attempted kidnapping. Relatives said they preferred to let Hampton live out each day to think about his crime.

“Neither my wife [n]or I wanted the death penalty,” Ignacio Arambula said. “Only God can take life away.”

Defense attorney Robert Willey said Hampton, who had a history of property crimes--including burglary--as a juvenile, has accepted responsibility for the crime.

“He acknowledged he was going to prison for the rest of his life and that’s what he deserved and that there was nothing he could do to bring [Arambula] back.”

Jose Vazquez remains in jail awaiting a May 18 trial date. Authorities are still looking for the third suspect, Manuel Vasquez.