Man to serve decades in prison for Hopewell 8-year-old’s murder
VENN
HOPEWELL, Va. (WRIC) -- One of three men charged in the deadly drive-by shooting of an 8-year-old girl in Hopewell in 2022 will serve more than two decades in prison for her murder.
The afternoon of Friday, Dec. 30, 2022, officers with the Hopewell Police Department were called to a home in the 2300 block of Freeman Street for report of a shooting.
When they arrived, officers found 8-year-old P'Aris Moore of Hopewell, who had been shot in the chest. She was taken to a local hospital, where she later died -- just a few days before her ninth birthday.
P'Aris Moore (Photo: Le'Sha Barnes)
Per police, detectives learned that a light-colored sedan slowed down along Freeman Street and someone from inside shot at Moore, who was playing in the home's front yard.
Nearly a year later, three people were charged in connection with Moore's murder. In Aug. 2023, then-18-year-old Rayquan Latrel Harvell of Chesterfield County and then-20-year-old Jamari Antonio Taylor of Hopewell were both arrested. Then, about a month later, then-17-year-old Brandon James Warner was arrested.
In March, Warner pleaded guilty to Moore's first-degree murder, as well as the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
On Friday, Aug. 8, he was given a life sentence for the murder charge, with all but 22 years suspended -- meaning he will only have to serve those 22 years of said life sentence, rather than the full term. For the firearm charge, he received a 3-year sentence.
Harvell, who faces the same charges as Warner, will next appear in Hopewell Circuit Court on Oct. 14.
Taylor's 4-day jury trial is set to start on Oct. 27. While he does face those same two charges, he was also hit with an additional third charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
