Troy T. Hodges, a 22-year-old male, drove to the Tri-State Mall in Claymont, Delaware, on the night of August 5, 1991, for a meeting that had been arranged around a cocaine purchase. He brought $10,000 in cash and had a teenage friend wait in a separate car while he went to the upper lot. Moments later, witnesses heard a pop and saw a man stumble from a slowly moving vehicle and collapse near the K-Mart entrance.
An autopsy later showed Hodges died from a single, contact-range gunshot fired from behind, the bullet entering his left side and traveling upward—evidence the muzzle had been pressed to his body.
Investigators quickly focused on two men from nearby Chester, Pennsylvania: Cornelius Ferguson and Tyrone Hyland. According to the record, Hyland had acted as the middleman for the deal while Ferguson supplied the gun and “muscle.” In Ferguson's taped statement, he admitted pointing the weapon during an argument inside the car; he later claimed the gun discharged accidentally as Hodges tried to get out. The Delaware Supreme Court summarized the sequence: a planned rip-off in the mall lot ended with a single shot and Hodges left to die on the pavement.
Ferguson was arrested, tried in 1992, and convicted of first-degree murder, robbery, and related charges. The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed, finding the evidence supported the conclusion that Ferguson placed a handgun against Hodges's back during an attempted or completed robbery and pulled the trigger. Hyland's role was established as the go-between who brought Hodges to the meeting; Ferguson's own statement, eyewitness accounts, and forensic findings aligned to reject his accident narrative.
After years of post-conviction litigation—including a federal habeas corpus appeal—Ferguson, who had adopted the name Abdullah Tanzil Hameen, received a death warrant. He was executed by lethal injection on May 25, 2001, for the murder of Troy Hodges committed during the drug deal at the Claymont mall. Contemporary reporting identified Hodges as a Delaware State University student, underscoring the shock felt in the community when the case reached its final outcome.
