Authorities say the killing outside Jefferson Lakes Apartments was tied to a private family dispute that turned into a criminal case.
BATON ROUGE, La. — Just before sunrise on March 22, a Baton Rouge apartment complex became the scene of a fatal shooting that investigators say was not a random act but the violent end of a dispute over children, custody and money.
The victim, Anthony Wesley Jr., was found dead on a sidewalk outside Jefferson Lakes Apartments after deputies responded to the complex in the early morning hours. What first looked like a parking lot homicide quickly widened into a case involving two suspects, surveillance footage, search warrants and allegations that the mother of Wesley’s children had pushed her boyfriend to kill him. The public impact of the shooting and the private allegations behind it now meet in one prosecution, as authorities pursue charges against Hope Jackson and Riddick Franklin.
The setting is central to how investigators describe the attack. Wesley had made it home, authorities said, when the gunman approached from behind and opened fire. Surveillance footage reviewed by detectives showed the shooter firing again after Wesley fell, according to local reports on the investigation. The apartment complex parking lot and sidewalk became the first map of the case: where Wesley arrived, where the shooter was positioned and how the killer left. Investigators soon identified a white Dodge Ram leaving the area after the shooting. That truck, seen not as background but as part of the crime scene, led detectives toward Franklin. They later detained him during a traffic stop and obtained warrants for the truck and his home. Authorities said those searches produced a handgun, clothing consistent with the video images and a cellphone that became a key source of evidence.
As the physical investigation developed, so did the portrait of the people involved. Franklin, 32, was accused of carrying out the shooting. Jackson, identified in reports as the mother of Wesley’s children, was later accused of helping drive it. Investigators said Franklin admitted the killing during questioning. He allegedly told detectives he had gone to the apartment complex to settle a dispute, describing it as an effort to “squash the beef” and “cease fire,” but then said he was also tired of being disrespected. Investigators further said Franklin described taking the gun apart and washing his clothes after the shooting. Those allegations helped frame the killing not as a brief confrontation in the lot, but as an act followed by steps police say were meant to cover tracks.
The case then shifted from the scene back into the lives of the people tied to it. Court records, according to local reports, showed Wesley had recently filed a petition involving custody, visitation and child support. Detectives said that filing mattered because Jackson feared losing custody. Messages recovered from Franklin’s phone allegedly showed Jackson pressing him to act before the court dispute moved further. In one exchange quoted by local outlets, she allegedly wrote, “I want him OV,” which investigators said meant she wanted Wesley eliminated. Authorities also said Jackson told Franklin, in substance, that she would lose everything if Wesley was not “taken care of.” The children were not part of the criminal allegations, but the fight over them is woven through the state’s motive theory.
What happens next will unfold far from the apartment sidewalk and under courtroom rules rather than streetlights. Franklin was booked on second-degree murder and additional charges that include obstruction of justice, illegal use of weapons or dangerous instrumentalities, and a firearm possession count tied to certain felony restrictions, according to local reports. Jackson was booked on one count of principal to second-degree murder. Both were being held without bond, and hearings were expected in April. Prosecutors are expected to rely on a combination of surveillance footage, phone records, search-warrant returns and court filings from the custody dispute. Defense attorneys are likely to scrutinize the meaning of the text messages, the sequence of events and the reliability of statements attributed to Franklin during interrogation.
For residents, the case carries two realities at once. One is the public shock of a man shot outside his home before dawn. The other is the private conflict investigators say had been building behind closed doors and in court documents. Those two realities met in a place many people treat as ordinary and safe: the walk from a parking lot to an apartment door. That is what gives the case its lasting force. It is a homicide prosecution shaped as much by domestic conflict and legal pressure as by the violence captured on camera.
Jackson’s case remained active in Baton Rouge, with the next key developments expected from court hearings and additional public filings.
Author note: Last updated April 20, 2026.