JUSTIN HODGES
A September 4 status hearing has been set for a convicted murderer who has been charged with violating terms of his probation.
Justin Gabriel Hodges, 42, appeared via a video link for arraignment before Essex Circuit Court Judge John S. Martin on August 21. Hodges is currently incarcerated in the Middle Peninsula Regional Security Center in Saluda.
Hodges was convicted in 2011 of a shotgun slaying of a convicted sex offender.
During last week’s court hearing, Essex County Commonwealth’s Attorney James M. Sitton II told the court that Hodges had allegedly failed to cooperate with probation/parole officials or fully participate in mental health and substance abuse services.
Martin appointed attorney James Monroe to represent Hodges in the matter and set the September 4 status date.
Hodges had been awarded bond last year by former Essex Circuit Court Judge Herbert M. Hewitt while awaiting a show cause hearing for an alleged probation violation.
During that arraignment, there were conflicting statements regarding Hodges’s conviction.
Monroe told the court his client was convicted of first degree manslaughter and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Then Commonwealth’s Attorney Vincent Donoghue, though, said the conviction was for second degree murder and a firearms violation.
Online court records and a check of Rappahannock Times 2011 coverage of the case shows that Hodges pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second degree murder in the death of 46-year-old Richard Earl Breeden. Hodges had originally been indicted on a first degree murder charge. Hodges also pleaded guilty to the firearms charge.
In a plea agreement accepted by the court, Hodges was sentenced to 25 years in prison with 18 years suspended on the second degree murder charge and a three-year term on the firearm charge. The sentences were served consecutively.
Hodges’s suspended sentence was for a period of 30 years and he was placed on supervised probation for five years following his release. He was also ordered to participate in substance abuse counseling and all counseling required by the office of probation and parole.
Then Commonwealth’s Attorney Mac Garrett told the court in 2011 that Hodges was concerned about his children and their mother residing with Breeden, who had serveda91/2-yearprison sentence for rape and forcible sodomy convictions in Richmond.
During a preliminary hearing, testimony revealed that on the night of the slaying Hodges returned to his residence at Blanton Apartments and found some of his belongings — specifically his deceased father’s CD collection, strewn about the yard while Breeden, Hodges’s children’s mother Jennifer “Dawn” Noel, and John Rouse were partying in the duplex.
At that hearing, Rouse testified that he intercepted Hodges as he was walking across the yard with a shotgun in tow. Rouse said he spoke with Hodges from a porch and later Noel joined the conversation.
Rouse testified while in conversation with Noel, Hodges raised the shotgun and pointed it towards the porch. Rouse said he grabbed Noel, pulled her behind him, and ducked while Hodges discharged the shotgun.
Rouse testified that he turned and discovered that Breeden had been shot. He said that Hodges, who admitted to consuming alcohol that night, then climbed the porch steps and delivered a fatal shot to Breeden’s head.
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