NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans police still have no motive or suspect in the double homicide along the I-10 Service Road on Feb. 20 that took the life of a 35-year-old Uber Driver and his 21-year-old passenger.
Musician and part-time Uber Driver Andrew Stiller was fatally shot along with his passenger 21-year-old Johnell Hampton, a student at SUNO. Stiller’s car then rammed a second car along Bundy Road with four people inside, one of whom was found with a non-fatal gunshot wound and leaving two others with injuries from the crash.
As detectives try to piece together who may have been responsible, WWL-TV revealed background that may end up playing a role in the case. At the time he was gunned down, Hampton was awaiting trial for accessory to attempted second-degree murder from a brutal attack in the French Quarter in January 2022.
Hampton’s criminal defense attorney, Michael Idoyaga, said his client was not only innocent, he was fearful of being involved in the criminal case after first being approached by police as a witness.
“I was never under the impression that he was guilty of anything,” Michael Idoyaga said.
With no criminal record and the first in his family to attend college, Hampton was free after posting bail, but the year-old case was a dark cloud over him as he tried to keep his student life on track.
“He was nervous,” Idoyaga said. “Because he didn't want to be considered for criminal prosecution and sentencing together with all these other people who for all we know actually were criminals.”
Police connected Hampton to a serious shooting in the French Quarter in January 2022 involving three other defendants. But Idoyaga says his client was just a bystander.
He said Hampton and his family were puzzled when police arrested him, first for obstruction of justice, then later the accessory charge.
“He was at best a witness and just didn't want to be involved at all,” Idoyaga said. “He belonged to the school culture as opposed to the street culture.”
His attorney never thought Hampton's fears would be realized beyond missing class to make a court appearance.
“He was just afraid to be swept up in this whole tragic thing,” Idoyaga said.