DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Gut wrenching testimony in the punishment phase of Kristopher Love’s capital murder trial.
The jury heard from the family of the Dallas dentist who was killed in a murder-for-hire plot.
The state presented five witnesses on Monday.
To convince a jury to agree on a death sentence, prosecutors have to show that Kristopher Love is a remorseless soul and a continuing threat to society.
Dallas County prosecutors portrayed Kristopher Love as a career criminal.
Kristopher Love (CBS11)
They revealed text messages showing he went right back to drug dealing and sex trafficking only days after being hired to commit murder.
That murder of Dallas Dentist Kendra Hatcher was in 2015.
Love was convicted of capital murder last week.
Witnesses testified he was hired by the jealous ex-girlfriend of Hatcher’s boyfriend to kill her and stage it as a robbery in the victim’s uptown apartment building.
Monday, police officers from Tennessee and Texas testified about the 34-year-old’s violent criminal record that goes back 15 years.
Prosecutors also revealed some of Love’s tattoos including one with the message life or death surrounded by money signs they said suggest he would kill for money.
Evidence showed the convicted killer was paid $500 to commit the crime and was planning to use it to expand his prostitution business.
The sister of Kendra Hatcher testified about the gut wrenching pain her family still feels three years later over losing her.
“She was full of life and full of love and she just gave everything she had to everybody and when I heard that this had happened and I know I’m getting off topic, I couldn’t imagine who would do it,” said Ashley Turner, Hatcher’s sister. “I couldn’t imagine who would hurt her because nobody disliked her nobody could’ve hurt her who knew her.”
(credit: Family of Kendra Hatcher)
If the jury decides on a death penalty it will be the first in Dallas County since 2013.
The state is expected to rest its case Tuesday morning.