A Norfolk man was sentenced Friday to 36 years in prison for the second-degree murder of a former police sergeant, the armed burglary of his home and related charges.
Xavier Elijah Hudspeth, 21, was employed by a cleaning company and allegedly wanted to rob former Norfolk Police Sergeant William Irving Moore, 88, to steal his firearm collection.
Hudspeth’s co-defendant, Andra Brown, allegedly shot Moore and his daughter during the robbery.
According to court records, Hudspeth 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.
At trial, Brown testified that 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 that she heard the gunshots from her bedroom, but that she thought they came from outside, and she called 911.
When Hubbard opened the door to her bedroom to check on her father, Brown saw her and shot her in the 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 then she fled 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’s sentencing is docketed for Friday, March 22.
Following a nearly four-day-long trial in September, a 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 Friday, Judge David W. Lannetti sentenced Hudspeth to serve 36 years in prison:
- 40 years (28 to serve) for second-degree murder
- Three years to serve for the use of a firearm in the commission of murder
- Five years to serve for the use of a firearm in the commission of aggravated malicious wounding
- 20 years (all suspended) for armed statutory burglary
- 10 years (all suspended) for conspiring to commit armed statutory burglary
- 10 years (all suspended) for conspiring to commit the larceny of firearms
The sentence was significantly above the high end of Hudspeth’s advisory sentencing guidelines of 24 years. Hudspeth is barred from contacting the Moore family, and he must also complete 30 years of uniform good behavior and indeterminate supervised probation following his release.
“This is a heavy sentence, but it is absolutely deserved. Mr. Hudspeth cased the victims’ house and put up Mr. Brown to commit this crime to keep his own hands clean. That makes him even more responsible than the man who pulled the trigger,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “I grieve for the victims in this case, one of whom is gone and the other of whom will live forever with what Mr. Hudspeth and Mr. Brown have done. As I have always done, I will continue to focus this office’s resources on the people who commit murders and woundings in our city.”
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Crystal Graham
