A U.S.-Jamaican dual national will be imprisoned for life after a federal jury in Virginia convicted him Wednesday of a 2016 murder-for-hire plot.
Antwan Denetrick Hue, 42, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison and is due to be sentenced on March 4, 2027, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said.
In addition to murder for hire, the jury convicted Hue of murder while engaged in drug trafficking and conspiracy to manufacture and distribute cocaine.
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Between 2015 and 2019, Hue managed an unspecified international drug trafficking organization, which involved frequent travel between the U.S. and Jamaica as well as to other Caribbean countries. When Hue went to renew his passport in 2016, he was told he was ineligible due to child support he owed to his child’s mother, federal prosecutors said.
Hue hired Deshawn Mercer, who also transported drugs for him, and Zquan Steeps to murder his child’s mother. Hue believed that if she was dead, he would not have to pay child support and could therefore get his passport renewed, federal prosecutors said.
Hue owed roughly $8,000 in child support.
On Dec. 4, 2016, Mercer, Steeps and a third person, Denasha Campbell, went to the victim’s home in Norfolk. Campbell, who has since died, knocked and asked to use her phone. Once the door was open, Mercer and Steeps forced their way in and killed the victim before fleeing the scene.
Federal prosecutors did not name the victim, but she has been identified as Charlene Ryals, who was 38 and a Navy veteran. After the attack, her 9-year-old son called 911 and said, “Some people came in and shot my mommy,” according to the Virginian-Pilot.
After finding out he still had to pay child support despite Ryals’ death, Hue negotiated with her mother on Dec. 24, 2016, to give her full custody of the child in exchange for not having to pay child support in the future, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
In October 2018, Hue once again applied to renew his passport citing an urgent need to go to Montego Bay in Jamaica. He was arrested in August 2019 in Florida by the Department of Homeland Security after attempting to take possession of a kilogram’s worth of cocaine, federal prosecutors said.
Mercer and Steeps pleaded guilty in 2024 along with two suspects who worked for the drug trafficking organization but who were not involved in the murder plot: Regina Sade Chen, also known as Erica Williams, and Kayla Bedessie.
All four received or will receive lighter sentences as part of their plea deals, which involved them testifying against Hue.
Mercer and Steeps, each charged on one count of conspiracy to commit murder for hire, also face a mandatory minimum sentence of life imprisonment.
Bedessie, who was convicted of manufacturing and distributing cocaine, was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison in September 2025. Chen faces at least 10 years in prison with a maximum sentence of life in prison for the same drug crimes.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not say when Chen, Steeps and Mercer are due to be sentenced for their crimes.
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