ST. LOUIS, MO – September 27, 2026 (STL.News) Three defendants have pleaded guilty in a federal murder-for-hire case involving the 2023 killing of 53-year-old Andreaia Worthem, a St. Louis County woman whose son admitted plotting her death in an effort to obtain proceeds from a $150,000 life insurance policy.
The guilty pleas bring a dramatic turn in a case that began when Worthem was found dead in an alley in north St. Louis during the early morning hours of July 7, 2023.
Federal prosecutors say Worthem’s son, Andrew C. Hubbard, 40, of Maryland Heights, devised a plan to have his mother killed after obtaining a $150,000 life insurance policy on her years earlier.
Hubbard initially planned for the killing to resemble a fatal drug overdose, according to his admissions and the plea agreements described by federal prosecutors.
When that plan failed, Worthem was shot multiple times and abandoned in an alley.
Hubbard pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and murder-for-hire. Eric Washington, 47, of Jennings, pleaded guilty in July, and Kim Alexis Mosley, 33, entered her guilty plea Sept. 22.
Washington and Mosley pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire resulting in personal injury, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.
The federal prosecution is United States v. Hubbard, et al., Case No. 4:23-cr-00562-HEA, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
$150,000 life insurance policy preceded murder plot
The financial component of the case dates back more than four years before Worthem was killed.
According to federal prosecutors, Hubbard applied for a $150,000 life insurance policy on his mother in April 2019.
By approximately June 2023, Hubbard had developed a plan to kill Worthem and obtain the insurance proceeds, according to the plea agreements.
His initial plan was not to shoot his mother.
Instead, Hubbard planned to use cocaine base containing a lethal amount of fentanyl or heroin, prosecutors said.
Hubbard discussed the scheme with Mosley and promised her $50,000 if it succeeded. He also approached his cousin, Washington, about supplying the drugs, knowing Washington had recently suffered an overdose, according to the government’s account.
Washington agreed to provide the spiked cocaine in return for a promised $10,000 payment.
The plan, however, did not unfold as originally envisioned.
Worthem was picked up shortly before her death
Federal court records provide a much more detailed reconstruction of Worthem’s final hours than was available when her death was initially reported in 2023.
Washington picked Worthem up from her St. Louis County residence at approximately 10 p.m. on July 6, 2023, according to the plea agreements.
He drove her into St. Louis.
Investigators would later use cellphone-location information to reconstruct portions of that journey.
A February 2026 federal court report and recommendation recounts information St. Louis Metropolitan Police Detective Matthew Boester presented in support of a search warrant obtained July 20, 2023.
According to that court record, Worthem’s cellphone was in one location at approximately 9:58 p.m. before appearing to move south. By approximately 10:09 p.m., investigators placed the device near North Broadway and Calvary Avenue or the 7400 block of Hall Street.
At approximately 10:12 p.m., the device was near the 1900 block of Adelaide Avenue, close to O’Fallon Park.
The phone then appeared to travel west.
By approximately 10:24 p.m., Worthem’s device was near the location where her body would later be discovered, according to the search-warrant affidavit summarized in federal court.
Investigators concluded from the distance traveled and the short time involved that the cellphone appeared to have been moving in a vehicle.
The device stopped providing precise location information shortly after that.
The phone briefly generated location information again at approximately 4:57 a.m. July 7, this time several blocks east of where Worthem’s body was located.
That digital trail later became significant enough that defendants challenged cellphone-related evidence before trial.
Drug plan failed before Worthem was shot
According to the admissions outlined by federal prosecutors, the original plan involving the drug mixture did not kill Worthem.
Washington instead shot her multiple times.
He then left Worthem in an alley in the 4400 block of Kennerly Avenue in St. Louis.
Shortly after 11 p.m., Washington called Hubbard.
“It’s done,” Washington told him, according to the plea agreements summarized by the Justice Department.
When Hubbard later met Washington and learned what had happened, Washington told him that the drugs had not worked and that he had shot Worthem instead.
The admission transforms what originally appeared publicly as another fatal St. Louis shooting into a substantially more complex federal murder-for-hire prosecution involving an alleged financial motive, a planned drug poisoning, a shooting and subsequent efforts to dispose of potential evidence.
Police found Worthem shortly before 6 a.m.
The court record provides a detailed account of what police encountered hours later.
At approximately 5:57 a.m. July 7, 2023, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department received a radio assignment for a person down near 4429 Kennerly Avenue.
Emergency medical personnel arrived first, observed that the woman appeared to have been shot, and notified police at approximately 6:05 a.m.
District Five officers found Worthem in the north alley of the 4400 block of Kennerly.
She was unconscious and not breathing and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators observed apparent wounds to Worthem’s chest, arm, and face. Her body was fully clothed, but police did not find her cellphone with her.
Investigators found several objects near her body, including makeup, a key and keychain, a cigarette and other items.
The court record says investigators did not locate ballistic evidence at the scene.
Detectives also observed rigor mortis and lividity, circumstances that investigators believed were consistent with Worthem having been at the location for a period of time and potentially having been killed overnight.
Those observations were made long before the guilty pleas that now establish significant parts of what happened before and after Worthem’s death.
Cellphone disappeared from murder scene
The missing cellphone became a notable element of the investigation.
According to the plea agreements described by federal prosecutors, Mosley paid Washington $200 for Worthem’s cellphone on July 7, the same day police discovered her body.
The phone was subsequently destroyed.
Prosecutors said Washington also hid the vehicle he used to pick up Worthem.
Hubbard and Mosley later followed Washington to Illinois so the vehicle could be returned, then drove Washington back to St. Louis.
Those events occurred as investigators began reconstructing Worthem’s final movements.
Less than two weeks after the killing, police sought cellphone tower records from major wireless providers covering several locations and time periods associated with the case.
The July 20, 2023 search warrant sought records associated with towers near the crime scene, Worthem’s residence and areas where investigators believed her cellphone traveled before she was killed.
The requested crime-scene window covered approximately 10 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. July 6, according to the subsequent federal court decision.
Defendants challenged cellphone evidence
The cellphone evidence eventually became the subject of significant pretrial litigation.
Washington sought suppression of evidence obtained through what the court described as cellular tower or geofence-related search warrants. Justin R. Lee, another defendant charged in the case, also filed a suppression motion and sought a separate trial.
Lee additionally requested a bill of particulars seeking greater specificity concerning his alleged role.
Washington sought severance as well.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph S. Dueker recommended in February 2026 that the court deny those motions. The magistrate judge concluded, among other things, that the superseding indictment adequately stated the charged offenses.
U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey subsequently adopted the recommendation concerning Washington’s motions after no objections were filed and denied the requested suppression and severance relief.
The litigation provides an unusually detailed public look at how investigators used digital information in reconstructing Worthem’s movements on the night she died.
Promised $10,000 became $450 and drugs
One of the more striking details contained in the plea agreements concerns what happened after Worthem was dead.
Washington had agreed to participate for $10,000, according to federal prosecutors.
He did not receive that amount.
Instead, Hubbard eventually paid Washington $450 and provided him with cocaine and marijuana as additional payment, prosecutors said.
Washington then grew impatient about the remaining money.
According to the Justice Department, Washington eventually contacted the insurance company himself to ask about the proceeds, telling the insurer he had performed “some work” for Hubbard and was owed money.
That call is particularly significant in understanding the financial structure prosecutors have described: Hubbard’s alleged motive was the $150,000 insurance benefit; Mosley had been promised $50,000; and Washington had been promised $10,000.
The actual amounts paid immediately after the killing were substantially smaller, according to the admissions.
Federal case expanded to four defendants
The prosecution also has a procedural history that is easy to miss if you look only at the latest Justice Department announcement.
An October 2023 federal announcement originally identified Hubbard, Washington, and Justin R. Lee, then 37 and identified as being from Northwoods, as defendants indicted on conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and murder-for-hire charges.
The case subsequently expanded.
A superseding indictment identified Hubbard, Washington, Lee and Mosley as defendants and alleged that they conspired to commit murder-for-hire through the use of facilities of interstate commerce, specifically cellular telephones.
The superseding indictment alleged that the conspiracy resulted in Worthem’s death on or about July 7, 2023. It also charged the four with a substantive murder-for-hire count based on the alleged use of cellular telephones and a promise or agreement to provide money or other benefits.
The latest Justice Department announcement, however, reports guilty pleas from Hubbard, Washington and Mosley.
It does not announce a guilty plea by Lee.
Accordingly, Lee’s status should not be conflated with the three defendants who have now admitted criminal conduct. The February 2026 court record shows Lee was still litigating pretrial motions.
Any charges that remain pending against Lee are allegations, and he is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt or enters a guilty plea.
Why the case became a federal prosecution
Murder is ordinarily prosecuted under state law, but the government charged this case under the federal murder-for-hire statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1958.
The statute reaches murder-for-hire schemes involving interstate-commerce facilities when a killing is intended in exchange for something of financial value.
The superseding indictment specifically identified cellular telephones as the interstate-commerce facilities used in the alleged scheme.
Federal law defines a facility of interstate or foreign commerce to include means of transportation and communication.
The statute also distinguishes punishment based on the offense’s consequences. A violation without resulting injury can carry up to 10 years in prison; when personal injury results, the statutory maximum increases to 20 years. When death results under the statute, federal law provides for life imprisonment or the death penalty, along with provisions for a fine.
That distinction matters here because the defendants did not all enter identical pleas.
Hubbard pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and murder-for-hire, while Washington and Mosley pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire resulting in personal injury, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The federal judge will determine the precise sentences after considering the applicable statutes, plea agreements, federal sentencing guidelines, presentence reports, and other legally permissible factors.
Sentencing begins in October
The first of the three sentencings is approaching.
Washington is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 21, 2026.
Hubbard is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 1, 2026.
Mosley’s sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 20, 2027, according to the Justice Department.
The federal court’s Sept. 22 docket independently confirms that Mosley appeared before U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey that afternoon, withdrew her previous not-guilty plea and pleaded guilty to Count One of the superseding indictment.
The court found Mosley competent to enter the plea and accepted both her guilty plea and plea agreement. The court held the remaining count in abeyance until sentencing.
Investigation crossed city and federal agencies
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and FBI investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Martin is prosecuting, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The Justice Department says the prosecution is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal initiative designed to coordinate federal, state and local efforts against violent crime.
But behind the federal charges, cellphone records, insurance money and plea agreements is the death of a 53-year-old St. Louis County woman.
When police entered the Kennerly Avenue alley shortly after sunrise on July 7, 2023, investigators did not yet have the admissions that now describe what happened in the preceding hours.
Three years later, the federal record paints a considerably clearer picture.
Hubbard has admitted participating in a plan to have his mother killed for insurance proceeds. Washington has admitted his role in the conspiracy after prosecutors said he picked Worthem up, drove her into St. Louis, and shot her after the planned drug poisoning failed. Mosley has admitted participating in the conspiracy, which prosecutors say included a promised $50,000 payment and her later acquisition of Worthem’s cellphone.
What began as a woman found dead in a St. Louis alley has developed into a federal murder-for-hire prosecution built around an insurance policy, promised payments, cellphone evidence and the defendants’ own admissions.
The next major phase will occur at sentencing, beginning with Washington in October.
Case: United States v. Hubbard, et al., No. 4:23-cr-00562-HEA, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
Editor’s note: Three defendants discussed in this report — Andrew C. Hubbard, Eric Washington and Kim Alexis Mosley — have entered guilty pleas as described above. Justin R. Lee was charged in the federal case but was not identified by the Justice Department’s Sept. 22, 2026 announcement as one of the three defendants who pleaded guilty. Any unresolved charges against Lee remain allegations, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
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