Judge to decide if jurors will see photos of 19-year-old murder victim

Nov. 30—Raleigh County Circuit Court Judge H.L. Kirkpatrick is considering whether jurors will see photos of 19-year-old Amber Dawn Meadow's body, after her killer shot her in the face at a Harper Road hotel in July 2018.

Davide Hudson, who has been identified as the killer by two women he is accused of kidnapping, will stand trial on Dec. 13 for Meadows' July 9, 2018, murder.

One of Hudson's co-defendants, Jonathan Kaleb Bird, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping and murder on Nov. 17.

Raleigh Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Brian Parsons said Bird was offered the plea deal in exchange for his testimony against Hudson.

On Monday, Parsons asked Kirkpatrick to allow jurors to see an unidentified number of police photographs which were taken inside of Room 47 at the Travelodge hotel.

Hudson's defense attorney, Robert Dunlap, asked that the photographs not be admitted. Kirkpatrick set a hearing that will allow him to look at the photos that Parsons plans to admit into evidence and to make a ruling, picture by picture.

Kirkpatrick also ruled that the state may enter into evidence convictions and plea agreements of co-defendants.

Hudson and three co-defendants — Bird, Tyrique Pearl and Trenton McCrimager — were arrested on charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder in Meadows' death.

They were also charged with two counts of kidnapping, after police say they kidnapped two other women, Arileah Lacy and Destiny Conkle.

According to Hudson's criminal complaint, Beckley Police Department officers were dispatched to Travelodge on July 9, 2018, after Lacy and Cronkle reported to the Raleigh County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and to Beckley Police Department officers that they had been with the victim in her car at Nell Jean Square in Beckley when the four men approached Meadows' car in an agitated manner and demanded, at gunpoint, that the victims drive to Travelodge, where McCrimager had rented two rooms.

Once inside the hotel, the armed men allegedly stole the victims' cell phones and vandalized them and made taunting remarks to them. They allegedly forced all of the victims to stay on one bed.

Conkle and Lacy told police that Hudson allegedly forced Meadows into the adjoining hotel room that McCrimager had rented and that they then heard a gun fire.

All of the men allegedly ran away after they heard the gun fire, and Conkle and Lacy drove Meadows' car away from the hotel and placed a 911 call.

According to the criminal complaint, a receipt from Walmart inside of the hotel room showed that ammunition had been purchased July 8 from Walmart, using McCrimager's birth date.

Hudson was on home confinement for allegedly murdering Meadows when he and another man, Alfred Pittman, were both charged for allegedly sexually assaulting another woman.

Each was charged with second-degree sexual assault and conspiracy to commit a felony in the second case.

Parsons said there is no evidence that Meadows was sexually assaulted.