In the spring of 1997, the life of 23-year-old Lisa Yvonne Alexander Crider, a Black/African American female from Lynchburg, Virginia, was tragically cut short in a brutal series of events that began on May 10th and ended with the discovery of her body on Mother's Day, May 11th. Crider, the mother of a five-year-old boy, was described by her own mother as a peace-loving soul who would try to protect anyone around her.
On that fateful night, Brandon Wayne Hedrick, 18, and Trevor Anthony Jones, then 19 or 20, were admittedly under the influence of alcohol, crack cocaine, and marijuana. After encountering Lisa Crider in Lynchburg, they devised a plan to rob her, believing her boyfriend was a crack cocaine dealer and that she might be in possession of drugs. Crider voluntarily accompanied the two men to Jones's apartment, where the night took a violent turn. Hedrick, at Jones's direction, retrieved a shotgun and robbed Crider of $50 at gunpoint.
What followed was a horrific ordeal for Crider. She was handcuffed, and her eyes and mouth were covered with duct tape before she was forced into Jones's truck. As they drove through the night, Hedrick subjected her to sexual assault. Fearing retaliation from her boyfriend, the two men made the decision to end her life. Despite her desperate pleas and attempts to bargain for her life, they drove to a remote location near the James River in Appomattox County. At daybreak, Jones led Crider to the riverbank and instructed Hedrick to 'do what you got to do.' Hedrick then shot Lisa Crider in the face with a shotgun. Her body was discovered later that evening by two individuals who had gone to the river to fish.
Hedrick and Jones fled Virginia the next day, but their escape was short-lived. Roughly a week later, authorities apprehended them in Lincoln, Nebraska. Following their arrest, Hedrick confessed to the police, admitting that he was the one who pulled the trigger. Both men faced a litany of charges, including capital murder, robbery, rape, forcible sodomy, and abduction.
The legal proceedings brought a measure of justice for Lisa Crider's family. Trevor Jones was convicted for his role in the crimes and received a sentence of two life terms plus 35 years. Brandon Wayne Hedrick was convicted of capital murder and, in 1998, was sentenced to death. The jury determined that he posed a continuing serious threat to society and that his offense was outrageously vile, involving torture and depravity of mind. On July 20, 2006, after choosing the electric chair over lethal injection, Brandon Hedrick was executed for the murder of Lisa Yvonne Alexander Crider.
