NORFOLK, Va. – A federal jury convicted Antwan Denetrick Hue, 42, today on charges of conspiracy to commit murder for hire, murder for hire, murder while engaged in drug trafficking, and conspiracy to manufacture and distribute cocaine.
According to court records and evidence presented at trial, from 2015 to 2019, Hue, 42, managed an international drug trafficking organization. Hue and Regina Sade Chen, aka Erica Williams, 36, imported multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine into the United States from the Caribbean, including Jamaica. Hue and Chen employed transporters, including co-defendants Kayla Bedessie, 34, and Deshawn Hassan Mercer, 33, to smuggle cocaine into and money out of the United States. Hue frequently traveled between the United States and Jamaica as well as other Caribbean countries to meet with co-conspirators and oversee the smuggling operation.
When Hue applied for a renewal of his expiring U.S. passport in 2016, he was informed that he was not eligible because he was in arrears on child support payments owed to the mother of his minor child. In November 2016, Hue hired Mercer and co-defendant Zquan Leon Steeps, 32, to murder the mother, believing her death would permanently end future child support payments and allow him to renew his passport.
On Dec. 4, 2016, Mercer, Steeps, and Denasha Campbell (who is now deceased) traveled to the victim’s home in Norfolk. After Campbell knocked and asked to use the victim’s phone, Mercer and Steeps forced their way into the residence and shot and killed the victim in front of her 9-year-old child. The conspirators fled the residence, leaving the child to call 911.
After learning that child support remains effective after the death of a parent, on Dec. 24, 2016, Hue negotiated with the victim’s mother for her to have full custody of his son so long as Hue was discharged from all further child support payments.
On Oct. 22, 2018, Hue, citing an urgent need to travel to Montego Bay, Jamaica, applied for and obtained a renewal of his passport. In August 2019, the Department of Homeland Security arrested Hue in Florida as he attempted to take possession of a kilogram of cocaine.
Hue faces a mandatory life sentence in prison when sentenced on March 4, 2027. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Chen pled guilty on Aug. 29, 2024, to conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to manufacture and distribute cocaine. She faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years and up to life in prison.
Bedessie pled guilty on Aug. 29, 2024, to conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to manufacture and distribute cocaine. She was sentenced on Sept. 8, 2025, to seventy months in prison.
Mercer and Steeps pled guilty in October 2024 to conspiracy to commit murder for hire. They face a mandatory minimum of life in prison.
Theophani K. Stamos, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Ian Kaufmann, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Richmond Field Office; and Kai Wah Chan, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C., made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen accepted the verdict.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph E. DePadilla and Brian J. Samuels are prosecuting the case.
This case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Washington, D.C., comprises agents and officers from the FBI; Homeland Security Investigations; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; Drug Enforcement Administration; Diplomatic Security Service; U.S. Marshals Service; U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service; Naval Criminal Investigative Service; Transportation Security Administration Federal Air Marshals Service; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Enforcement and Removal Operations; and Washington Baltimore HIDTA, with the prosecution being led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 2:24-cr-38.