In the early hours of a Sunday morning in Nashville, Tennessee, the life of Nelson Alberto Soto, a 31-year-old Hispanic male, was brought to a violent and tragic end. On May 22, 2022, while sitting in his vehicle in the parking lot of the Woodland Pointe Drive apartment complex, Soto was fatally shot in what investigators would later describe as a targeted attack. A female passenger in the car with him was also struck by the gunfire but survived her serious injuries.
The investigation that followed uncovered a sinister murder-for-hire plot. Authorities determined that the shooting was not a random act of violence but a calculated execution. The investigation, led by Detective Timothy Skopek, revealed that a man named Clesi Hodges, 45, had contracted Brandon L. Sharp, 35, to kill Soto due to an ongoing dispute between Hodges and the victim.
A third individual, Jaime Cooper, 39, was also implicated in the scheme. It was alleged that Cooper played a crucial role by luring Soto and his female companion to the apartment complex parking lot, where Sharp was waiting to carry out the deadly assault. At the time the warrants for their arrests were issued, both Hodges and Sharp were already incarcerated on unrelated charges in Wilson and Sumner counties, respectively. Cooper, however, remained at large for a period before being apprehended.
The legal process brought two of the accused to justice. A Davidson County jury found Clesi Hodges and Jaime Cooper guilty of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. For their roles in the premeditated killing of Nelson Soto, both men were sentenced to life in prison. The man authorities identified as the gunman, Brandon L. Sharp, died in 2023 before he could be fully prosecuted for his alleged role in the murder-for-hire plot.
