A Phoenix man who beat his mother and nephew to death with a shovel earlier this year is heading to the slammer -- for a long, long time (or until he croaks, whichever comes first).
In November, Erik Lampert, 35, copped to murdering his two relatives, 14-year-old Logan Lampert and 61-year-old Sheila Lampert, on June 20. This morning, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael Kemp sentenced him to two life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Lampert, described as a bi-polar loner, was living with his mother when he beat the two to death with a shovel before stuffing Logan Lampert's body into a trash can.
Following the murders, Lampert disappeared for two days. Because he was considered to be a loner who rarely left his Phoenix neighborhood -- where he was known to hang out with transients -- police expected to find him near the crime scene.
Lampert, however, was found more than 27 miles from the house where he murdered his mother and nephew, drinking water from a sprinkler head in a Tempe park.
Tempe police initially didn't make the connection between the homeless-looking man drinking from a sprinkler head to the man who was suspected of murdering his mother and nephew, and let him go. An astute 9-1-1 operator did make the connection, though, and Lampert was arrested two hours after his initial contact with police.
When he was arrested, Lampert refused to acknowledge who he was and told officers he was Jesus. Obviously, authorities didn't buy it and he was arrested.
Lampert's life sentences will run concurrently.
