On the late afternoon of February 20, 2023, 30-year-old Marquel Judge of Graniteville was shot while a passenger in a car on the 1600 block of Edgefield Highway in Aiken, South Carolina. The shooting happened around 5 p.m. when another vehicle pulled alongside and gunfire erupted. Judge was taken to Aiken Regional Medical Center and pronounced dead shortly after 8 p.m.; the Aiken County Coroner’s Office ruled the cause of death a gunshot wound to the head.

Two people who had been in the car with Judge identified suspects to investigators. After a traffic stop nearby, deputies arrested 21-year-old Jorge Valentino Espinoza and 18-year-old April Corlan Hudson. Espinoza was charged with murder, two counts of attempted murder, and weapon possession; Hudson was charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder. Investigators did not immediately announce a motive.

Judge was remembered as a father who attended Midland Valley High School and worked for Trantech Radiator Products. He enjoyed basketball and singing and was described as kind and humble. One of the accused, Jorge Espinoza, had earlier legal troubles, including a 2019 plea to a lesser assault and battery charge stemming from an allegation of rape of a 13-year-old, and an Edgefield County arrest three months before this shooting for alleged possession of a stolen gun that was pending at the time of the murder arrest.

Did anyone in the Aiken area know Marquel or see activity on Edgefield Highway that afternoon?