PETERSBURG, Va. (WRIC) — A man who was arrested for his connection to a shooting murder that took place in a Petersburg hotel in 2019 was sentenced on Tuesday, Sept. 13, according to a statement from the Petersburg’s Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney.
According to the statement, Rickey Antwan Young was sentenced to a total of 34 years in prison for armed burglary, conspiracy to commit armed burglary, possession of a firearm after being convicted of a felony and use of a firearm in the commission of murder.
Petersburg’s Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office said the court’s decision came after a two-day jury trial held on May 4 and May 5, 2021, at the Petersburg Circuit Court, where Young was also acquitted on the remaining charges of first-degree murder, malicious wounding and use of a firearm in the commission of malicious wounding.
On April 23, 2019, police responded to the scene of a reported shooting at the Budget Motor Inn on North Jamestown Drive. Upon their arrival, they found Anthony “Amp” Hudgins bleeding on the floor of a motel room with multiple gunshot wounds. Court documents revealed Hudgins later died from the 14 bullet wounds that he sustained during the incident.
According to the statement from the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, police reviewed video footage from the motel and learned that three armed men had forced their way into Hudgins’s room. The video reportedly showed the door to Hudgins’s room was closed but a struggle could be heard, followed by sounds of numerous gunshots.
Young was later identified by police as one of the three armed men who entered Hudgins’s room. According to police, Young was seen running from the room as the shooting continued inside. It was determined, according to court documents, that Young was not the actual shooter in the incident.
According to the Office’s statement, Young had claimed in an interview that he never intended for Hudgins to be killed, and, instead, he wanted a ‘one-on-one fight’ with Hudgins. Young said in the interview that he thought Hudgins had arranged for him to be robbed days before the fatal shooting on April 23.
The Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office said in its statement that while the court rejected Young’s argument, it believed he had acted out of retribution and took the law into his own hands when he and the other two armed men entered Hudgins’s room.
