Norfolk Jury Convicts Man of Second-Degree Murder, Burglary and Conspiracy From 2022 Shooting of Retired Norfolk Police Sergeant

NORFOLK, Va. – A Norfolk jury on Friday convicted 21-year-old Xavier Elijah Hudspeth of the second-degree murder of 83-year-old former Norfolk Police Sergeant William Irving Moore, the armed burglary of his home, and related charges following Mr. Hudspeth’s plot to steal Mr. Moore’s collection of firearms that led Mr. Hudspeth’s co-defendant, 21-year-old Andra Brown, to shoot Mr. Moore and his daughter early last year.

Mr. Hudspeth was employed by a cleaning company and had on two occasions prior to the burglary been dispatched to clean Mr. Moore’s Phillip Avenue home, which Mr. Moore shared with his daughter, Connie Hubbard. At trial, Mr. Brown testified that Mr. Hudspeth recruited Mr. Brown to rob Mr. Moore of the firearm collection he kept in his home. However, because Mr. Moore and Ms. Hubbard knew Mr. Hudspeth’s face and voice, Mr. Brown was to be the burglar while Mr. Hudspeth kept watch.

On the evening of Feb. 28, 2022, Mr. Brown and Mr. Hudspeth arrived at Mr. Moore’s house, and Mr. Brown knocked on the door to see if anyone was home. When Mr. Moore answered the door, Mr. Brown immediately shot him once in the head and twice in the chest, killing him.

Ms. Hubbard testified that she heard the gunshots from her bedroom, but that she thought they came from outside, and she called 911. When Ms. Hubbard opened the door to her bedroom to check on her father, Mr. Brown saw her and shot her in the face. Ms. Hubbard fell to the floor, but she remained conscious and alert enough to hear Mr. 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 checked on her father and found him unresponsive, and then she fled to a neighbor’s house for help. Ms. Hubbard lost her left eye to Mr. Brown’s gunshot and continues to suffer from pain and from trouble with her balance.

Mr. Brown testified that, after the shootings, he left the house through a back door at Mr. Hudspeth’s urging from outside. Ms. 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,” Mr. Hudspeth.

Mr. Hudspeth and Mr. 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. Mr. Hudspeth was also indicted for the larceny of a firearm from Mr. Moore’s home that occurred a month before the fatal home invasion.

In November 2022, Mr. Brown pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, aggravated malicious wounding, the use of a firearm, and conspiring to commit the larceny of firearms, and Judge Tasha D. Scott accepted his plea. His sentencing is docketed for Oct. 6.

On Friday, after about six hours of deliberation following a nearly four-day-long trial, the jury found Mr. 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. Mr. Hudspeth is docketed for sentencing before Judge David W. Lannetti on Dec. 1.

“William Moore gave his career to our City and deserved to live the rest of his life in peace,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “He and his family had hired Mr. Hudspeth to help take care of them, and Mr. Hudspeth broke that trust in the worst way. The defendants in this case killed him in his own home and nearly killed his daughter, all for greed. Mr. Brown has admitted his guilt. The jury has convicted Mr. Hudspeth. We now will advocate for a sentence that holds them accountable for what they have done.”

Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney K. Scott Miles and Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jessica L. Terkovich are prosecuting Mr. Hudspeth’s case on behalf of the Commonwealth, retired Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Karen J. Burrell and Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Keith M. Proctor led the prosecution of Mr. Brown’s case, and Norfolk Police Detective Kyle Austin served as the lead investigator.

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