
A 27-year-old woman has been sentenced to 23 years in prison in connection with the 2016 premeditated murder of an 18-year-old from Portsmouth on Crawford Road in York County.
Amina Lillian Washington withdrew a not-guilty plea on a charge of first-degree murder, instead pleading guilty Sept. 26 to first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, according to online York-Poquoson Circuit Court records.
Washington’s case was originally scheduled for a five-day jury trial starting Oct. 28 before she withdrew the not-guilty plea.
On the murder charge, Washington was sentenced to 99 years in prison with 76 years suspended, resulting in 23 years to serve — three of those years are for the firearm charge.
Upon her release from prison, she will be on probation for an additional 99 years.
According to prosecutors and court papers, Washington and a man, Julian Rios, plotted Austin Baxley’s death for weeks leading up to the evening of June 30, when Baxley was shot and his body dumped on Crawford Road.
A third person, Antionne Hinton, helped get rid of the guns used in the killing. He pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact in a homicide in January.
“[Rios] and the codefendant took Austin Baxley to Crawford Road, where, at the agreed upon signal, he’d be shot and left on that road,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Benjamin Hahn said during a March 2018 plea hearing for Rios.
Baxley was found around midnight after a passerby reported finding a body on the side of the road near the Tour Road overpass. Baxley had been shot in the head and torso.
Rios pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in March 2018, but his sentencing was delayed until after Washington’s trial. In his plea deal, Rios said he would provide evidence against Washington in return for a reduced sentence.
The plea deal recommends a similar sentence to what Washington received.
Rios also pleaded guilty to use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, which carries a mandatory minimum three-year sentence for a first conviction.
Rios’s sentencing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Nov. 5 in the York-Poquoson Circuit Court, during which a judge will either accept or deny the recommended sentence in the plea deal.
Update: This story has been updated to include information that Rios’s sentencing was moved to Nov. 5, instead of its original Nov. 19 date.