Mother of daughter fatally assaulted, left in shopping cart says overall system failed her

CEDAR RAPIDS — A grieving mother Friday said her mentally and physically disabled daughter, who was “brutally beaten to death” while 19-weeks pregnant, had also been the victim of systemic failures from several state and federal agencies, law enforcement and the courts.

Tempest Hampton, mother of Brittany Hopkins, 38, who was fatally assaulted by Donnie Danell White, 51, on Feb. 26 or early 27, didn’t focus her victim impact statement much on White, during his sentencing. She wanted to make a record about how the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, as well as other agencies had failed to help her daughter as a mother and a resident.

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Hampton said Hopkins’s three other children were the “center of her universe” but two of them had been taken away from her and put into the foster system without contacting Hampton, who could have taken in her grandchildren. Hopkins never gave up her rights and the children were adopted without Hampton’s knowledge, she said.

Besides Hopkins’ mental and physical struggles, she was a “bright and vibrant” woman who loved her children and was looking forward to the birth of Sevyn Shelby Joe Hopkins. Hampton said Hopkins had planned to come home to be with her family but never had that chance because she was killed.

Hampton said her daughter was “exploited, abused and silenced” as if she didn’t matter, but her death has left a “hole” in her families’ lives. She wasn’t a “throwaway person.”

White, originally charged with first-degree murder, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and nonconsensual termination of pregnancy. He was immediately sentenced on Friday.

During the plea, White admitted to “taking” Hopkins life on Feb. 26 or early Feb. 27. He “cracked her skull open” using the “back of a gun” to her head.

White also admitted to killing her with “malice aforethought” — intention. White denied knowing she was pregnant but admitted her death also ended the child’s life.

Sixth Judicial District Judge Andrew Chappell sentenced White to up to 50 years on the murder charge and up to 25 years on the other charge but ran them concurrently for a total of up to 50 years, which was included in the plea agreement. White must serve a mandatory 35 years before being eligible for parole.

Chappell also ordered him to pay $150,000 in victim restitution to Hopkins’ estate or heirs in accordance with Iowa law.

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According to criminal complaint, police found Hopkins’ body wrapped in a “blood-soaked” comforter left in a shopping cart on Feb. 28 in a parking lot at 2110 Westdale Dr. SW. Someone found the body and called police.

Electrical tape was wrapped around the comforter, covering Hopkins’ body and bags of garbage had been placed on top of her, the complaint states.

An autopsy showed she died from blunt force head injuries.

Police had surveillance videos from Westdale Town Centre parking lot, as well as videos showing White and Hopkins together on Feb. 22 at the U-Haul at Westdale, according to the complaint.

A witness reported he saw Hopkins and White together on Feb. 26 and said he was there when White assaulted Hopkins.

Police learned that White had been living in an apartment building at 4215 21st Ave. SW, less than a block from where Hopkins’ body was found, the complaint stated. They found marks in the apartment building hallway that appeared to be from a shopping cart scraping the carpet as it led to the exit of the building.

Video surveillance from a nearby building on Feb. 27 showed someone pushing an empty shopping cart up to the building, and leaving about 15 minutes later with a full shopping cart and heading in the direction of 2110 Westdale Parkway SW, where Hopkins was found.

Records from the apartment building show the access card associated with White’s apartment was used to enter the building at the time shown in the video, and again about 30 minutes later, according to the complaint.

Police, after obtaining a search warrant for White’s apartment, found blood spatter on the walls, bleach stains on the carpet that were about the “size and dimensions of a human body,” a hammer with hair and blood on it, a broken CO2 air gun with more hair and blood on it, scuff and drag marks on the carpet, black electrical tape, documents belonging to White and a bloody handprint that was identified as White’s, according to the complaint.

Police contacted the U.S. Marshals Service on March 14 to help them find and arrest White, who had left Cedar Rapids. White was then arrested March 19 by marshals in Las Vegas and he was extradited to Iowa.

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