A man recruited to be a triggerman in a robbery scheme in Norfolk was sentenced on Friday to 33 years in prison for shooting and killing a former police sergeant.
Andra Brown, 21, pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of 83-year-old William Irving Moore. He also pleaded guilty to the aggravated malicious wounding of Moore’s daughter, using a firearm in the commission of a felony and conspiring to steal Moore’s collection of firearms.
According to court records, Brown’s co-defendant, 21-year-old Xavier Elijah Hudspeth, was employed by a cleaning company and had on two occasions prior to the burglary been dispatched to clean Moore’s Phillip Avenue home, which Moore shared with his daughter, Connie Hubbard.
Hudspeth recruited Brown to rob Moore of the firearm collection he kept in his home.
However, because Moore and Hubbard knew Hudspeth’s face and voice, Brown was to be the burglar while Hudspeth kept watch.
On the evening of Feb. 28, 2022, Brown and Hudspeth arrived at Moore’s house, and Brown knocked on the door to see if anyone was home. When Moore answered the door, Brown immediately shot him once in the head and twice in the chest, killing him.
Hubbard testified at Hudspeth’s September 2023 jury trial that she heard the gunshots from her bedroom, thought they came from outside, and called 911. When Hubbard opened the door to her bedroom to check on her father, Brown saw her and shot her in her face. Hubbard fell to the floor, but she remained conscious and alert enough to hear Brown rummage through her father’s belongings in the other bedroom and to hear a different but familiar voice say, “Dude, what did you do?” She played dead until she was confident that the two men had left the premises. She then checked on her father and found him unresponsive and went to a neighbor’s house for help. Hubbard lost her left eye to Brown’s gunshot.
Brown testified that, after the shootings, he left the house through a back door at Hudspeth’s urging from outside. Hubbard could not recall to whom the other voice belonged until after she underwent surgery and was recovering in the hospital at which point she told her sister the voice belonged to “the cleaning guy.”
Hudspeth and Brown, having traveled on foot and by bicycle, were detained while leaving the scene by arriving Norfolk Police officers.
Both were charged with second-degree murder, malicious wounding, and two counts of the use of a firearm in the commission of those felonies.
In August 2022, the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office secured indictments from a grand jury against both men for first-degree murder, aggravated malicious wounding, armed statutory burglary, three counts of the use of a firearm in the commission of those felonies, conspiring to commit armed statutory burglary and conspiring to commit the larceny of firearms.
Hudspeth was also indicted for the larceny of a firearm from Moore’s home that occurred a month before the fatal home invasion.
In November 2022, Brown pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, aggravated malicious wounding, the use of a firearm and conspiring to commit the larceny of firearms. Judge Tasha D. Scott accepted his plea. Brown also agreed to testify against Hudspeth at his jury trial.
Brown testified the following September at the jury trial for Hudspeth, where the jury found Hudspeth guilty of second-degree murder, the use of a firearm in the commission of murder, the use of a firearm in the commission of aggravated malicious wounding, armed statutory burglary, conspiring to commit armed statutory burglary and conspiring to commit the larceny of firearms.
On March 15, Judge David W. Lannetti sentenced Mr. Hudspeth to serve 36 years in prison, with another 52 years suspended on the conditions that Hudspeth be barred from contacting the Moore family and complete a period of uniform good behavior and supervised probation following his release.
On Friday, Judge Scott sentenced Brown to serve 33 years in prison, with an additional 50 years suspended on the conditions that he also be barred from contacting the Moore family, pay restitution to the Virginia Victims Fund and complete a period of uniform good behavior and supervised probation following his release.
Brown’s sentence was just below the midpoint of his advisory sentencing guidelines and took account of the fact that Brown confessed, pleaded guilty, cooperated with the police and prosecutors and testified against Hudspeth at trial.
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Published date: March 18, 2024 | 11:16 am
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Crystal Graham
