Ten Virginia gang members involved in the April 2020 attack and maiming of a 21-year-old Norfolk mother will spend the next four years to life in prison.
Brandon L. Winnegan, the leader of the Hampton Roads-based group who authorized the multiple attempts on the victim’s life and the subsequent neglect of her then-2-year-old son, was sentenced in Norfolk Circuit Court today to life in prison plus 38 years.
The brutal, hours-long mob attack perpetrated by people whom the victim once considered family involved her being beat, strangled, stabbed and forced to drink bleach because she expressed a desire to leave the group. The assault culminated in the victim being shot in the face and left for dead.
As a result of the attack, the victim lost her right eye and hearing in her right ear. She will also suffer neurological issues including numbness and vertigo for the rest of her life.
While her son was not physically injured by the defendants, he was left alone on the street by gang members, and he had to be placed in foster care while his mother was incapacitated.
Former Norfolk Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Gregory B. Turpin led the pleadings of all 10 cases on behalf of the Commonwealth. Former Norfolk Police Detective Matthew J. Walsh led the investigation.
Sentencing recap
- Brandon L. “Sayso” Winnegan, 34, Newport News: Pleaded guilty on April 14, 2022, to conspiring to commit malicious wounding, the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, abduction, participating in a criminal act for the benefit of a gang, aggravated malicious wounding, child neglect and the possession of a firearm by a non-violent convicted felon within the past 10 years. Judge David W. Lannetti sentenced Winnegan on Monday to life in prison plus 38 years.
- Skylar D. “Thump” Webb, 22, Chesapeake: Pleaded guilty on June 22, 2021, to malicious wounding, conspiring to commit malicious wounding, aggravated assault by mob and participating in a criminal act for the benefit of a gang. Judge Lannetti sentenced Webb on Sept. 9, 2022, to 35 years in prison with 30 years and six months suspended, leaving an active sentence of four years and six months. Webb’s suspended sentence is conditioned upon her completing 10 years of uniform good behavior and 10 years of supervised probation following her release from prison.
- Toporshia V. “Lawless” Hodges, 25, Chesapeake: Pleaded guilty on April 5, 2022, to abduction, participating in a criminal act for the benefit of a gang, aggravated malicious wounding, conspiring to commit aggravated malicious wounding, the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, child neglect and hazing of gang member. Judge Michelle J. Atkins sentenced Hodges on July 29, 2022, to 51 years in prison with 30 years suspended, leaving an active sentence of 21 years. Hodges’ suspended sentence is conditioned upon her completing 10 years of uniform good behavior and three years of supervised probation following her release from prison.
- Tavarrius D. “Flash” Mitchell, 21, Portsmouth: Pleaded guilty on June 15, 2021, to abduction, participating in a criminal act for the benefit of a gang, aggravated malicious wounding, conspiring to commit aggravated malicious wounding, the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, child neglect and the possession of a firearm by a previously convicted violent felon. Judge Lannetti sentenced Mitchell on July 18, 2022, to 70 years in prison with 36 years suspended, leaving an active prison sentence of 34 years. Walker’s suspended sentence is conditioned his completing 20 years of uniform good behavior and 20 years of supervised probation following his release from prison.
- Deondre T. “Killa” Watkins, 26, Portsmouth: Pleaded guilty on April 14, 2022, to abduction, participating in a criminal act for the benefit of a gang, aggravated malicious wounding, conspiring to commit aggravated malicious wounding, the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, child neglect and the possession of a firearm by a previously convicted violent felon. Judge Lannetti sentenced Watkins on July 15, 2022, to 68 years in prison with 32 years suspended, leaving an active sentence of 36 years. Mr. Watkins’ suspended sentence is conditioned upon him completing 30 years of uniform good behavior and 30 years of supervised probation following his release from prison.
- Asja D. “Ruby Red” Smith-Moore, 23, Virginia Beach: Pleaded guilty on July 26, 2021, to malicious wounding, conspiring to commit malicious wounding, aggravated assault by mob, participating in a criminal act for the benefit of a gang, concealing or destroying physical evidence of a felony offense and child neglect. Judge Jerrauld C. Jones sentenced Smith-Moore on July 1, 2022, to 38 years in prison with 31 years suspended, leaving an active sentence of seven years. Smith-Moore’s suspended sentence is conditioned upon her completing 20 years of uniform good behavior and 20 years of supervised probation following her release from prison.
- Javonne D. “Shamurda” Hodges, 25, Chesapeake: Pleaded guilty on April 7, 2022, to abduction, participating in a criminal act for the benefit of a gang, conspiring to commit aggravated malicious wounding, grand larceny and concealing or destroying physical evidence of a felony offense. Judge Mary Jane Hall sentenced Hodges on June 10, 2022, to 13 years in prison with six years and six months suspended, leaving an active sentence of six years and six months. Hodges’ suspended sentence is conditioned upon him completing 10 years of uniform good behavior and 10 years of supervised probation following his release from prison.
- Sadia M. “Murk” Brown, 27, Norfolk: Pleaded guilty on July 1, 2021, to malicious wounding, participating in a criminal act for the benefit of a gang, aggravated assault by mob, conspiring to commit malicious wounding and child neglect. Judge Hall sentenced Brown on June 10, 2022, to 16 years in prison with 11 years suspended, leaving an active sentence of five years. Brown’s suspended sentence is conditioned upon her completing 10 years of uniform good behavior and 10 years of supervised probation following her release from prison.
- Ginger A. “Gin” McAfee, 21, Virginia Beach: Pleaded guilty on July 22, 2021, to participating in a criminal act for the benefit of a gang, malicious wounding, conspiring to commit malicious wounding and aggravated assault by mob. Judge Hall sentenced McAfee on May 13, 2022, to 21 years in prison with 15 years and six months suspended, leaving an active sentence of five years and six months. McAfee’s suspended sentence is conditioned upon her completing five years of uniform good behavior and five years of supervised probation following her release from prison.
- Xavier A. “Too Much” Walker, 26, Virginia Beach: Pleaded guilty on April 14, 2022, to conspiring to commit malicious wounding, and participating in a criminal act for the benefit of a gang. Judge Lannetti sentenced Walker the same day to 10 years in prison with six years suspended, leaving an active sentence of four years. Walker’s suspended sentence is conditioned upon his completing 10 years of uniform good behavior and 10 years of supervised probation following his release from prison.
All defendants are forbidden to contact the victim as conditions of their sentences.
Court records: Gang member said victim was a snitch
According to court records, in April 2020, the victim was recruited into a local set of the Rollin’ 20s Outlaw Bloods gang. Shortly after being initiated into the gang, the victim began receiving multiple disciplinary punishments for not accurately reciting gang information or properly following orders.
On April 23, 2020, the victim and her son arrived at Brown’s apartment on Glen Myrtle Avenue. The 10 defendants, along with other gang members and children, were present at the apartment with the intention of the group having a movie night for the children while the adults partied.
At one point during the evening, the victim received another DP and was assaulted by the female gang members present. Following that assault, the victim told Winnegan, the Outlaws set leader, that she wanted to leave the gang. After attempting to dissuade the victim, who insisted she wanted to leave, Winnegan told the rest of the gang members present about her intentions. The group grew angry, began assaulting the victim more brutally than before, and some members began insisting that the victim be killed for becoming a liability.
The victim was severely disfigured to the point that they could not initially tell whether she was alive or how she had been injured.
The victim attempted to leave the apartment with her son. Winnegan allowed the victim to exit the apartment, and Watkins forcefully walked her toward her car.
Other gang members followed and surrounded the victim’s vehicle with firearms. After the victim and her son got in her car, the victim realized in the ensuing chaos that she had forgotten her keys inside the apartment. Winnegan instructed the victim to stay put and keep her car locked before returning to the apartment with Brown to look for the victim’s keys.
Hodges, the ranking female member of the Outlaws set, who at some point took the victim’s phone, began looking through the device and announced to the group that the victim was a snitch. Hodges then attempted to destroy the victim’s phone. Watkins tore through a plastic cover over the victim’s broken back passenger window, dragged the victim out of the vehicle and started back toward the apartment. The victim’s son was also removed from the car and was returned to a room inside the apartment with the other children.
Walker, who left the apartment earlier in the evening, returned as the other gang members were threatening the victim outside.
As a leader of a Virginia Beach-based gang set, Walker spoke privately with Winnegan before the victim was forced back inside the apartment. The victim heard Walker, while he distributed disposable gloves to the group, instructing them on how to eventually kill her. Walker then departed for the remainder of the night.
The assault on the victim resumed by Winnegan striking her in the face with his fists and a firearm. Winnegan then strangled the victim while the others pinned her to the floor and contributed to her beating. The more the victim drifted in and out of consciousness and showed signs of life, the more severe her beating became. The gang members took turns strangling her, attempted to suffocate her with various items, twisted her head in attempts to snap her neck, stabbed her around her midsection, and poured bleach down her throat as she lay on the floor.
As these attempts on the victim’s life were being committed, Hodges and some others continued their efforts to destroy her cell phone and delete digital records of her contact with the gang. At one point during the assault, Hodges suggested that the group steal money from the victim’s CashApp account while they still had her phone.
Finally, the decision was made to shoot the victim. Winnegan supplied Mitchell and Watkins with a firearm he received from Walker, instructing them to “take care of it.”
Mitchell and Watkins then took the victim back to her vehicle and drove her several streets away from the apartment. Video from nearby home surveillance systems recorded the duo parking the vehicle at a dead end in the early morning hours of April 24. The victim was shot multiple times in the car with one bullet entering her right eye and exiting through her right ear. Mitchell and Watkins then placed the victim in the front seat of her car and left her for dead before walking back to the apartment. They were again captured on video surveillance throwing away the gloves they had been wearing in a resident’s trash can.
Back at the apartment, the group decided against murdering the victim’s son. With the boy in tow, all of the remaining defendants loaded into their vehicles to head toward a hotel in Portsmouth.
On the way down Hampton Boulevard, the car driven by Watkins stopped in a West Ghent neighborhood. The group pushed the boy out of the car and drove away leaving him to wander the neighborhood in the rain. A garbage truck driver later found the 2-year-old on their morning route and reported the incident.
The boy’s mother was found hours after being shot by a concerned neighbor who reported the occupied vehicle to Norfolk Police. When officers arrived, the victim was severely disfigured to the point that they could not initially tell whether she was alive or how she had been injured.
Share
Crystal Graham
