Tara Swilley: The Shooting, Jeffrey Hampton, and the Verdict

Tara Swilley was murdered on August 2, 2004, when a handyman named Jeffrey Allen Hampton fired eleven rounds from a high-powered SKS rifle into her parents’ Dalton, Georgia home while she slept in the master bedroom. One round struck the 26-year-old mother in the head, killing her instantly. Investigators concluded Hampton was aiming for her father, Clifford “Buddy” Parker Jr., who had evicted him from a Parker-owned apartment. Hampton was convicted of felony murder and sentenced to life in prison plus fifteen years.¹²

The Night of the Shooting

Tara, her husband Scott Swilley, and their seven-month-old daughter Jordan were staying in the master bedroom of Buddy and JoAnn Parker’s Dalton home. Buddy was out of town on the Georgia coast. Two of Tara’s sister’s children were also in the house.³

Someone opened fire from the front lawn using a high-powered SKS rifle. Investigators later recovered eleven spent cartridge casings from a position more than 100 yards from the bedroom. The bullet that killed Tara ricocheted before striking her head. Scott was jolted awake by gunshots and breaking glass. He tried to rouse his wife and could not; she was unresponsive and covered in blood. The other family members huddled in another room.¹⁴

Tara Was Not the Intended Target

The master bedroom where Tara died was where Buddy and JoAnn Parker normally slept. Buddy told the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office he believed the bullets were meant for him, and investigators came to share that view. Whoever fired those eleven rounds through the wall almost certainly expected to find him in that room.⁵

Buddy Parker was a Dalton businessman who owned a carpet store and rental properties. Over the years he had collected disputes with ex-business partners, angry tenants, and dissatisfied customers, and detectives had no shortage of people to look at.¹

How Investigators Identified Jeffrey Hampton

Buddy first pointed detectives at the Bearden family, the in-laws from another daughter’s bitter divorce. Rodney Bearden and his father Billie Bearden were interviewed. Both provided alibis that checked out. A fired ex-Parker employee named Danny Foster was also looked at, but security footage and receipts placed him grocery shopping at the time of the shooting.¹

Jeffrey Hampton, a 32-year-old handyman who worked for Billie Bearden, tried to steer detectives toward Foster. Instead, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation traced the SKS rifle to a flea market about six hours from Atlanta. Billie Bearden told investigators he had bought that rifle at the flea market for Hampton, adding that Hampton “owns a lot of guns.”¹

Detectives searched Hampton’s property and recovered shell casings. The GBI Crime Lab in Atlanta matched them to the casings from the Parkers’ front lawn. The rifle itself was never found; Hampton told authorities he had “gotten rid of it.”¹

Hampton’s own brother, Mark Hampton, then gave police a devastating piece of testimony. The day after the shooting, Mark said, Jeffrey asked him to drive past the Parker property so Jeffrey could “see if he had actually killed anyone or not.”¹

On August 12, 2004, ten days after Tara’s death, Sheriff Scott Chitwood announced Hampton’s arrest at a press conference. Chitwood identified Hampton as a former Parker employee and former Parker tenant.⁵

A Split Verdict

A Whitfield County grand jury indicted Hampton on November 10, 2004, charging malice murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, first- and second-degree criminal damage to property, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.²

The trial in Superior Court lasted about a week. Hampton mounted an alibi defense. The prosecution answered with the ballistic match, Mark Hampton’s testimony, and Hampton’s own admissions. Prosecutors argued Hampton had not set out to kill Tara specifically, but had fired into the house to send a violent message to Buddy Parker over the eviction, and that Tara’s death was a foreseeable consequence.⁴

On April 2, 2005, the jury split the verdict along exactly that line. It acquitted Hampton of malice murder, one count of felony murder, and one aggravated assault count, all of which required proof he specifically intended to kill. It convicted him on the remaining seven counts, including felony murder based on the underlying felonies, aggravated assault, both property-damage charges, and the firearm charge.²

The Sentence

On April 5, 2005, the trial court merged the felony murder and aggravated assault convictions and sentenced Hampton to life in prison for felony murder. He received an additional ten years consecutive for first-degree criminal damage to property, five years consecutive for second-degree criminal damage to property, and five years concurrent for the firearm charge.²

The Appeal Failed

Hampton appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court. He argued the evidence was insufficient because his alibi should have created reasonable doubt. He claimed his post-trial lawyer had failed to challenge two things: the trial judge’s private interviews with jurors outside Hampton’s presence, and trial counsel’s failure to investigate whether prescribed antidepressants had left him too sedated to help defend himself. He also argued the judge misinstructed the jury on prior consistent statements.²

In October 2007, in Hampton v. State, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed on every count. A rational jury could reject the alibi. Hampton had personally waived his right to be present for the juror interviews, so his lawyer had nothing to object to. The trial court had found Hampton alert, coherent, and capable of assisting his defense, and the Supreme Court saw no clear error in that finding. The state conceded the jury instruction on prior consistent statements was technically wrong, but the court called it harmless because those statements had come in as admissions by a party opponent, not as prior consistent statements.²

Who Tara Swilley Was

Tara Parker Swilley had married Scott Swilley at the Wink Theatre in Dalton less than two years before her death. She left behind a nine-year-old son, Nick, and a seven-month-old daughter, Jordan. She had been planning to open a beauty shop. Her parents, Buddy and JoAnn Parker, later moved out of the house where the shooting happened because the memories were too painful. “I have to make myself believe it’s real,” Buddy told the local paper. “It’s the worst thing you can ever face.” The family established a scholarship in Tara’s name at Tennessee Temple University in Chattanooga.⁶

1
Oxygen. Tara Swilley Fatally Shot by Jeffrey Hampton as She Slept
2
FindLaw. Hampton v. State
3
Floor Daily. Daughter of Dalton Carpet Retailer Killed by Sniper
4
Chattanoogan. Hampton Guilty of Tara Swilley Murder
5
Chattanoogan. Arrest Made in Slaying of Tara Swilley
6
Dalton Daily Citizen. Family Struggles to Cope With Loss of Tara Swilley