State College man gets prison time for putting roommate’s corpse in trash after overdose death
A State College man was sentenced Tuesday to at least one year in state prison for placing the corpse of his roommate — who died of a drug overdose — in a trash can and leaving it at a property he believed was abandoned.
Christopher L. Hampton, 51, was sentenced by Centre County Judge Julia Rater to a maximum of two years in prison. He pleaded guilty in January to a misdemeanor count of abuse of a corpse. Two other misdemeanors were dropped.
Hampton was also sentenced Tuesday to additional time in prison for unrelated charges. He declined an opportunity to speak before his sentence was handed down.
His roommate’s corpse was found in December 2022 in a trash can outside of a residence on Oakhurst Lane in College Township, borough police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
Hampton was not charged for causing the man’s drug overdose death, but a State College police detective wrote in the charging document that Hampton took several days to consider what to do with the corpse after a trip to Ohio.
He told investigators the man fell during a stop at a gas station near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border and was injured. They returned to a home on the 100 block of West South Hills Avenue, where Hampton said he “left him in the driveway wrapped in a carpet for a few days while he decided what to do,” police wrote.
The man’s father said Tuesday that the delay caused “significant pain” and robbed his family of a proper viewing.
“Our family will never have complete closure,” he told Rater. “... No human being deserves to be treated this way. My son didn’t deserve to be treated this way.”
A woman told officers Hampton texted her a bloody photo of the unconscious man on the drive back with a message that said “I think he died,” police wrote. The woman said the man was dead by the time Hampton returned.
She was aware the man remained in her garage for several days while Hampton “decided how best to dispose of the body,” police wrote. She also discussed several ideas with Hampton, police wrote. She was not charged.
Speaking via Zoom, the dead man’s sister said she was “profoundly grieved.” She spoke of shaken relationships with her spouse, children and other surviving family members. She also said her children were “robbed of the opportunity to form a relationship with their uncle.”
Hampton later told officers he took a nearby trash can, put the corpse inside and moved it to Oakhurst Lane. He also said he put the man in the can by himself and showed detectives where he put it, police wrote.
A forensic pathologist said the man died of a drug overdose, which included fentanyl, methamphetamine and a powerful animal tranquilizer called xylazine. There were no signs of injury or trauma that could have caused the man’s death, police wrote.
Centre County Assistant Public Defender Elizabeth Vanier said Hampton pleaded guilty, in part, to spare the man’s family from hearing painful testimony at trial.
But as the man’s oldest brother put it in a written statement, much of the damage was already done. He said processing life without his brother has been “intensely challenging and painful.”