Ex-wife: Suspect knew two homicide victims

A man arrested in a double killing last weekend in southeast Colorado Springs knew the victims and was a rapper like them, his ex-wife said Tuesday.

Hiram Sampson, 32, is accused of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Darrell Mitchell, 20, and Samone Robinson, 21. They were killed early Saturday morning at a party at Whitney Young Manor apartments in the 2100 block of Delta Drive near Chelton Road and Academy Boulevard, police said.

Sampson had spent time in prison for sexual assault and started recording rap music after he was released, said Mandy Daily, Sampson’s exwife.

Taking the artist name “Young Duce,” he recorded an album with Don’t Sleep Entertainment, a local record label. The album, titled “The Streets Is Callin’ My Name,” became a best-seller at Colorado Springs’ Independent Records and Video, according to The Gazette archives.

Daily said she doesn’t know what happened at the party Saturday that resulted in the deaths of the two men and two others being wounded.

Mitchell, a budding rap artist, went by “D Mitch” and had recorded an album with the local production company EDoubleG Productions, owner Erik Shable said.

Police have declined to say what led to the argument.

Colorado Springs police are seeking another suspect, Darneau V. Pepper, 35, in connection with the shooting, in which Derek Austin, 20, and Maurice Magazine, 27, were wounded. Details of their wounds and conditions have not been released; police have said their wounds were not lifethreatening, and they are not listed as patients at any area hospital.

Daily, who lives a mile from the apartments where the men were killed, went to high school with Sampson in Widefield, she said. They stayed in contact over the years, and after Sampson went to prison in 1994, she visited him.

Sampson spent almost 10 years in prison on a first-degree sexual assault conviction. They married in 2002, a year before Sampson left prison. They divorced in 2006.

“We just kind of grew apart,” Daily said.

Daily said she remains close with her ex-husband. He’s done his prison time and is registered as a sex offender, as required by state law.

“From what I know, I don’t see him shooting two people like that,” Daily said.

Daily said Sampson is a devoted father to his children — a 3-year-old daughter with Daily and a 13-year-old son from a previous relationship.

“He has good intentions. He’s just in a bad situation,” Daily said. “He has a good heart. Everybody’s just saying the bad stuff.”