Alan Champagne was sentenced to death by the State of Arizona for a double murder
According to court documents Alan Champagne, who was on parole for murder at the time, would kill Philmon Tapaha and Brandi Hoffner.
Apparently Alan Champagne thought that his girlfriend’s brother, Philmon Tapaha, was getting in the way of his relationship
Alan Champagne would burn the bodies following the murder and bury the remains in his mother’s yard. The remains would be found seven months later
Alan Champagne would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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Where Is Alan Champagne Now
Alan Champagne is incarcerated at ASPC Eyman, Browning Unit
Alan Champagne Case
On June 23, 2011, Champagne and three friends drank alcohol
and used methamphetamine at his apartment.1 One friend, Elise Garcia,
spent the night. Early the next morning, she was in the bathroom when two
people entered the apartment with Champagne. As she walked into the
living room, Garcia heard a gunshot and then saw Tapaha on the couch
with a bullet wound to his head, blood on the walls and the couch, and
Champagne standing next to him holding a gun. Tapaha’s girlfriend,
Hoffner, cried at the sight of her dead boyfriend, saying, “I loved him.”
¶3 Champagne attempted to calm Hoffner and asked if she
wanted to get high. Hoffner nodded affirmatively, and he led her into the
bedroom and gave her a bong and methamphetamine for her to smoke.
Garcia followed them into the bedroom and sat in the doorway.
Champagne left the room briefly, placing a gun in Garcia’s lap before he
exited the room. Garcia testified that when she locked eyes with Hoffner,
Hoffner understood she would not be allowed to leave. When Champagne
returned, he came behind Hoffner as she was smoking and slipped an
electrical cord fashioned into a noose around her neck. Hoffner struggled,
clawing with both hands at the cord trying to breathe as Champagne used
a wrench to tighten the cord with each turn. Garcia recalled Hoffner’s face
turning purple as Champagne strangled her to death.
¶4 After Champagne killed Hoffner, he kept the bodies in his
apartment for approximately one week. Eventually, Champagne placed
the decomposing bodies into a large wooden box, which he buried in his
mother’s backyard. About twenty months later, a landscaper discovered
the box containing the bodies.
¶5 The State charged Champagne with two counts of first-degree
murder for the killings of Tapaha and Hoffner, one count of kidnapping
Hoffner, and two counts of abandonment or concealment of the bodies. The
jury found Champagne guilty on all charges, except that it found him guilty
of second-degree murder for the killing of Tapaha. The jury found three
aggravating circumstances: (1) Champagne had been previously convicted
of a serious offense, A.R.S. § 13-751(F)(2); (2) he murdered Hoffner in an
especially cruel manner, § 13-751(F)(6); and (3) he was convicted of multiple
homicides during the commission of the offense, § 13-751(F)(8). The jury
found that the proffered mitigation was not sufficiently substantial to call
for leniency and Champagne was sentenced to death for Hoffner’s murder
