Two people were arrested earlier this month in the death of a former University of Oklahoma football player at a downtown Dallas apartment, according to an arrest-warrant affidavit obtained Tuesday by The Dallas Morning News.
Antwan Franklin, 22, and Erick Garcia, 24, were booked into the Dallas County jail on July 8, with bail set at $500,000 for Franklin and $750,000 for Garcia. Each faces a charge of capital murder in the death of 25-year-old Du’Vonta Lampkin, and it is unclear whether they have attorneys.
Police allege in the affidavit that Franklin set up the fatal robbery of Lampkin, his friend.
Officers were called just after 10 p.m. May 5 to an apartment in the 500 block of South Ervay Street, where they found Lampkin dead from a single gunshot wound to the chest.
Police previously said the apartment was an Airbnb rental that Lampkin was staying in while waiting to move into a new one. He was supposed to check out the next day.
The affidavit indicates that Lampkin was killed nearly a full day before his body was found.
According to the affidavit, Franklin and Lampkin were seen on surveillance footage parking in front of the apartment at about 1:40 a.m. Fifteen minutes later, Franklin appeared to wave to Garcia and another person to “come on” or “move forward” while Lampkin was still in the car and couldn’t see.
Garcia and the other person then went inside the apartment and looked for the unit Lampkin was staying in before hiding in a stairwell, the affidavit says.
As Franklin walked away from the complex, Lampkin entered the building shortly after 2 a.m., and the affidavit says Garcia and the other person immediately ran up behind him as he got off the elevator on the fifth floor. A minute later, Garcia was seen running back to the stairwell with Lampkin’s backpack, which “was known to be full of money,” according to the affidavit.
On July 5, detectives received records of several Instagram messages between Franklin and Garcia. According to the affidavit, Franklin told Garcia that Lampkin was “intoxicated and unconscious” and Franklin needed Garcia to “rob us” because Lampkin had a lot of money both on him and in his room.
Franklin also told Garcia he wanted a third person to go with them and assured Garcia that Lampkin was “friendly” and didn’t have a gun.
Just after 2 a.m. May 5, Garcia sent Franklin a message to let him know he was waiting for Lampkin in the stairwell, to which Franklin replied, “Don’t do it til he at door,” the affidavit says.
The affidavit did not identify the third suspect, and police have not announced a third arrest.
Lampkin played in 15 games for the Oklahoma Sooners as a defensive tackle from 2015 to 2017. He signed with the Tennessee Titans as an undrafted free agent in 2018.
