Prosecutors: Sweet potato links suspect to cold case murder

BARNSTABLE, Mass. (WCVB/CNN) - A man has been charged in Massachusetts in connection to a cold case murder, thanks to DNA, a GPS tracker and a sweet potato.

Forty-year-old Devarus Hampton was charged Monday. The charges come 12 years to the day after Todd Lampley was found shot to death in 2011.

The lead that resulted in Hampton’s arrest was a phone tied to the name Marlo Stanfield, a fictional character in the HBO series “The Wire.”

In the show, a potato was used as a silencer.

Investigators found a sweet potato at the real scene of Lampley’s murder.

According to officials, the sweet potato had Hampton’s DNA on it.

Prosecutors say they can place Hampton at the home at the time of the murder because of data from a GPS monitor he was wearing due to a previous crime.

They also say GPS tracking puts him at a pond where a gun was later recovered.

Hampton is being held without bail. He has a court date scheduled for April 5.

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