On the early morning of Monday, December 15, 2025, officers in Hopewell, Virginia, responded to reports of shots fired and found a single-vehicle crash on the 1000 block of Haskell Street. Inside the vehicle was Jesse James Rhodes, a 38-year-old Hopewell resident, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene; the shooting occurred on his birthday.

Hopewell Police Department detectives opened an immediate homicide investigation. Leads developed that identified specific individuals believed to be involved. With assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service, authorities arrested Wendell Lamont Studivant, 41, of Hopewell and charged him with second-degree murder; he was held without bond at Riverside Regional Jail. A second person, 40-year-old Markice Garry Haskins of Petersburg, was charged with accessory after the fact in a felony.

Anyone who has information about the shooting or who saw activity on Haskell Street around 1:25 a.m. on December 15 is asked to contact the Criminal Investigations Unit or the local Crime Solvers hotline.