During deliberation, jurors received a read-back of excerpts of testimony of a police officer on Hampton\u2019s performance on field sobriety tests after the crash on Interstate 20, near Texas 360, in December 2021, and on a preliminary breath test.<\/p>\n
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The jury then sent a new note to Judge Steven Jumes.<\/p>\n
There was disagreement on the meaning of a particular instruction. The note also offered a description of the status of the evidence assessment underway in the jury room in the 485th District Court in Tarrant County.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome jurors have reasonable doubt and some do not,\u201d the presiding juror wrote in part.<\/p>\n
Asked by the judge for her view on a proper response, prosecutor Madeline Jones suggested that the judge direct the jury to refer to its instructions and continue to deliberate. Defense attorney Bob Gill said that it appeared that the jury was hung and advocated for a mistrial declaration.<\/p>\n
Noting that the jury had only been at it for three hours and 20 minutes, Judge Jumes sent a response similar to the one Jones supported.<\/p>\n
After about 10 minutes, a buzzer sounded. The jury had made a unanimous decision.<\/p>\n
Even before the jury filed in, defense attorney Miles Brissette told Judge Jumes that Brissette would want a poll, a procedure in which the judge individually asks each juror whether the verdict is the juror\u2019s.<\/p>\n
The form that the judge read aloud from the bench indicated that the jury had found Hampton not guilty of intoxication manslaughter and guilty on each of the other three counts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs this your individual verdict?\u201d the judge asked one juror at a time, calling each by name. The first three answered in the positive.<\/p>\n
The judge arrived at Juror No. 16, a woman sitting in the box\u2019s back row.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not,\u201d the juror said.<\/p>\n
At that, Judge Jumes directed the jury to continue to deliberate.<\/p>\n
During discussion about what to do next, including whether to bring the jury back to the courtroom to poll the remaining eight jurors and perhaps inquire about their thinking on each count, the judge asked his bailiff to direct the jury to temporarily stop deliberation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve honestly never been in this situation before,\u201d Judge Jumes told the attorneys.<\/p>\n
Just as the course ahead was set, the jury again indicated it had a verdict. Its decision was the same as it had been earlier. This time in a poll, every juror said the verdict was his or her individual determination.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the jury returned to the courthouse to consider punishment, which it assessed at 15 years in prison on the manslaughter count and five years on each of the aggravated assault with a deadly weapon counts. Hampton, 29, will serve the terms at the same time and become eligible for parole when he has served seven years and six months.<\/p>\n
The punishment range age for each of the crimes is two to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors sought a 15-year term. The defense did not request a precise term, but argued that Hampton was a strong candidate for probation. He has no criminal history.<\/p>\n
Judge Steven Jumes reviews video while the court is at ease during the trial of Tyler Hampton in the 485th District Court in Tarrant County on Tuesday, July 21, 2026 in Fort Worth. Hampton was indicted on charges including intoxication manslaughter in the December 2021 death of 2-year-old Mi\u2019lania Pierite. Abigail Dollins Fort Worth Star-Telegram <\/p>\n
Four days before Christmas, the Pierites spent time piecing together a toy kitchen. In the evening the family drove to a Walmart and a smoke shop from which Joshua bought gummies in a package that was later found unopened in his damaged vehicle. The family was returning home when the collision occurred. In a car seat behind her parents, Mi\u2019lania focused on a tablet, with her then-4-year-old sister beside her.<\/p>\n
Hampton was driving a Mazda MX-5 at 91 mph at the point of impact with the Pierites\u2019 Toyota Tundra and at 100 mph four seconds before it, Tim Lovett, a collision reconstruction expert whom prosecutors hired to consult in the case, concluded from his review of airbag control module data. Lovett also conducted mechanical inspections of the MX5 and Tundra.<\/p>\n
Hampton drank three Shiner bottled beers and two shots of whiskey at a Grand Prairie pool hall and smoked marijuana at his manager\u2019s house in the hours before the collision, Hampton told a police officer near the scene.<\/p>\n
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office found that Hampton\u2019s blood-alcohol concentration was .039, just less than half of the legal limit. Prosecutors, however, may also prove intoxication by demonstrating that a person did not have the normal use of his mental or physical faculties. Under that standard, Hampton was intoxicated at the time of the collision, Assistant District Attorneys Jones and Elizabeth Haratsis argued.<\/p>\n
Hampton parked 801 feet from the wreck scene. The first officers to encounter Hampton testified that they observed that his eyes were glassy and watery, that he smelled of alcohol, had slow movements and repeatedly checked the same pocket for his wallet.<\/p>\n
Another driver tailgated Hampton before Hampton changed across the highway\u2019s lanes and collided with a vehicle, Hampton told an officer.<\/p>\n
As Hampton crossed, his car knocked the Tundra into a guardrail, and the pickup truck rolled off of I-20, police determined.<\/p>\n
Dr. Raymond Nkwantabisa, a physician in the ICU at Cook Children\u2019s Medical Center in Fort Worth, pronounced Mi\u2019lania dead two days after the collision. She suffered a severe spinal cord injury, CT and MRI scans showed.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had no brain activity when I encountered her,\u201d Nkwantabisa testified.<\/p>\n
Car wrecks in which people are injured are frequent and many are not criminal matters, defense attorney Gill said in his closing argument in the guilt-innocence trial phase.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an irreparable tragedy,\u201d Gill said of the I-20 collision.<\/p>\n
Throughout the trial the defense probed what the attorneys described as failings in the thoroughness of the Arlington Police Department\u2019s investigation of the case, particularly the lack of complete photo documentation.<\/p>\n
Gill questioned Lovett\u2019s use and verification of artificial intelligence, from which the expert learned that wheel sensors yielded the speed of the MX-5.<\/p>\n
Did Lovett plug a question into AI, sit back with coffee \u201cand bill the county for his time,\u201d Gill asked rhetorically during his argument.<\/p>\n
Hampton elected not to testify.<\/p>\n
Tyler Hampton was found guilty of manslaughter in the December 2021 death of 2-year-old Mi\u2019lania Pierite at his trial in the 485th District Court in Tarrant County. Hampton drove across all lanes of Interstate 20 near Highway 360 in Arlington before colliding with a pickup truck in which Mi\u2019lania was a passenger. Abigail Dollins Fort Worth Star-Telegram <\/p>\n
This story was originally published August 8, 2026 5:57 PM.<\/p>\n
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