Naima Ishmail

Naima A. Ishmail was a 25-year-old Black woman working as a receptionist at Crozer Chester Medical Center Internal Medicine in her hometown of Chester, Pennsylvania. Her life was cut short in the fall of 2020 when she was found dead on a walking trail near the city’s waterfront.

On the morning of October 7, 2020, a passerby discovered Naima’s body on the trail at Front and Norris streets. An autopsy determined she had died from a single gunshot wound to the head, fired at close range. Her death was ruled a homicide. The investigation soon focused on the night before, when Naima drove her gold 2006 Chrysler 300 to the nearby community of Brookhaven to pick up Champion Hough, a 25-year-old man she had been dating. Surveillance footage captured Hough getting into her car around 8:15 p.m. Prosecutors later stated that Naima, unaware of what was to come, drove to the riverfront spot where Hough executed her in what they described as a “premeditated, heinous act of violence.”

Although Naima’s phone and earbuds were found with her body, her car was missing. Police located the Chrysler later that day, abandoned about eleven blocks from the crime scene. A friend of Naima’s confirmed to detectives that she had been in a relationship with Hough. The crucial breakthrough in the case came from DNA evidence recovered from inside Naima’s car. In November 2021, while Hough was incarcerated at SCI Phoenix on an unrelated parole violation, investigators obtained a DNA sample from him that matched the evidence from the vehicle.

In January 2022, authorities charged Champion Hough with criminal homicide, murder of the first, second, and third degree, theft, and firearms offenses in connection with Naima’s death. He was denied bail. Following a preliminary hearing in April 2022, a judge ordered Hough to stand trial on all charges.

In January 2025, a jury found Champion Hough guilty of first-degree murder. The following month, Common Pleas Court Judge John Capuzzi sentenced him to a mandatory term of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The case was officially closed as of February 2025.