Gunman is found guilty of shooting dentist, dead in the car park of her upmarket Dallas apartment in murder 'orchestrated by her boyfriend's bitter ex'

Gunman.

A gun-for-hire has been found guilty of killing a dentist outside her apartment as part of a plot allegedly put together by her boyfriend's jealous ex. Kristopher Love, 34, was found guilty of capital murder in a Dallas courtroom on Thursday for shooting Kendra Hatcher, 35, in the head in September 2015. 


Jurors heard how Love was recruited for the killing, allegedly by 36-year-old Brenda Delgado who wanted revenge after Hatcher began dating her ex Ricardo Paniagua. The trial began on Monday with closing statements read on Thursday before jurors were sent out for deliberations, The Dallas Morning News reports. They took just three hours to return a guilty verdict for Love and prosecutors say they will now seek the death penalty. Hearings over the punishment will begin on Monday, with Love facing the prospect of becoming the first man sent to death row from Dallas county since 2013. The court heard how Delgado and Paniagua began dating in 2012 and were an item for two and a half years before Paniagua decided to break it off. But Delgado 'could not let go', prosecutors said, and began following Paniagua around. 'I would go running at the Katy Trail and sometimes when I was running she would be running the opposite direction,' Paniagua claimed. 

Victim and boyfriend.

When Hatcher came on the scene in May 2015, Delgado's attentions focused on her instead. Paniagua told the court that their relationship progressed quickly and the pair had set up a wedding fund by August that year. That convinced Delgado that she had to kill her love rival, prosecutors argued. Evidence showed that she shopped around for someone to kill Hatcher, before landing on Love and her friend Crystal Cortes, who was to act as the driver. Jurors heard how Cortes was given $500 while Love was paid in 'drugs and money' for the hit. The pair went to confront Hatcher at her apartment on September 2, 2015, the day before she was supposed to leave for a romantic getaway in Mexico with Paniagua. 

Lawyers said Love walked up to Hatcher and shot her in the head with a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson which was later found stashed in his car. Paniagua was waiting inside the apartment as she was killed. During the trial, lawyers for Love tried to argue that he had only robbed Hatcher of her purse and that Cortes had been the one to pull the trigger. But jurors swept that argument aside and found him guilty of murder. Delgado fled to Mexico after the killing but was caught and returned to Texas, where she now faces trial for capital murder. 

Ex-lover.

Cortes was initially going to be tried for the same crime, but it was downgraded to murder and her sentence reduced to 35 years as part of a plea deal after she agreed to testify against Love and Delgado. Hatcher's mother, Bonnie Jamseon, cried in court after the verdict was read and hugged the Dallas homicide detective who investigated her daughter's death. A trial date has not been set for Delgado, but she will not be eligible for the death penalty as part of the extradition agreement with Mexico.