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Jury sentences Alan Champagne to death in 2011 killings
Authorities say Alan Champagne killed two people and buried them in the backyard of a Phoenix home in 2011.
On Wednesday, a jury sentenced Alan Champagne to death in the 2011 murder of two people.
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PHOENIX - A jury sentenced Alan Champagne to death on Wednesday.
Champagne, 46, was convicted of first- and second-degree murder in the 2011 deaths of Brandi Nicole Hoffner and Philmon Tapaha. Their bodies were buried in the backyard of Champagne's mother's home, but were not discovered until 2013 when a landscaper discovered the buried bodies.
A jury sentenced Alan Champagne to death for 1st degree murder & 24 yrs in prison for 2nd degree murder, kidnapping & concealing a dead body
— MC Superior Court (@courtpio) September 6, 2017
He was also convicted of kidnapping and abandoning or concealing a body.
Investigators say Champagne shot Tapaha and choked Hoffner to death, put their bodies in a box, poured in lame to help with decomposition and buried it at his mother's home.
A jury sentenced him to death on the first-degree murder charge and 24 years in prison for second-degree murder.
According to an Associated Press article, a motive for the murders is not known, but Champagne was reportedly high on meth before the killings.
