A custody and child support fight ended in a fatal shooting outside a Baton Rouge apartment complex, investigators say.

BATON ROUGE, La. — A Louisiana woman is accused of pressing her boyfriend to kill the father of her children, and deputies say the boyfriend waited for hours in an apartment parking lot before shooting the man as he arrived home on March 22.

Authorities say the killing of Anthony Wesley Jr. grew out of a family court dispute that had become more urgent in the weeks before his death. Hope Jackson was later booked on a charge of principal to second-degree murder, while Riddick Franklin, her boyfriend, had already been arrested on a second-degree murder charge and other counts. The case now centers on surveillance video, phone records, text messages and statements investigators say connect the shooting to the custody fight.

Deputies were sent to Jefferson Lakes Apartments in the 12000 block of Jefferson Highway in the early morning hours of March 22 and found Wesley dead on a sidewalk outside the complex. Investigators later reviewed surveillance footage that they say showed the gunman shooting Wesley from behind moments after he got home. The shooter then moved closer and fired more rounds while Wesley was down, according to investigators’ account of the video. Detectives also identified a white Dodge Ram leaving the area soon after the gunfire. Using license plate data, they traced that truck to Franklin and later stopped him in traffic. Search warrants for the truck and Franklin’s home turned up a handgun, clothing investigators said matched what was seen on video, and Franklin’s phone, according to the case narrative described in local reports.

The evidence trail, according to investigators, did not stop with the truck. During questioning, Franklin admitted killing Wesley, local reports said, though his explanation shifted between trying to smooth over a conflict and acting because he felt disrespected. Detectives said Franklin also told them he went home afterward, took apart the gun and washed the clothes he had been wearing. Investigators later recovered messages from Franklin’s phone that they say showed Jackson pushing him to act. In one exchange cited in the arrest records, Jackson allegedly wrote, “I want him OV,” a phrase investigators said meant to finish off or kill someone. Authorities also said phone logs showed the two were in repeated contact before and after the shooting. Police have not publicly laid out every message in sequence, and a fuller court record could test how prosecutors present motive and intent.

The alleged motive turned the homicide into more than a street shooting case. Court records showed Wesley had recently filed a petition involving custody, visitation and child support for the couple’s children. Investigators say Jackson was upset over that filing and feared losing custody. Franklin told detectives, according to the warrant materials quoted by local outlets, that Jackson said she would “lose everything” if Wesley was not taken care of before the court process moved forward. That allegation places a family court battle at the center of the criminal case. It also gives prosecutors a theory for why investigators say Franklin did not act on impulse, but instead waited in the parking lot for Wesley to return. What remains unclear is how long the conflict had been building, whether there had been earlier threats reported to authorities, and whether anyone else knew about the alleged planning before the shooting happened.

The charges now facing the two suspects reflect different alleged roles in the same killing. Franklin, 32, was booked on second-degree murder as well as illegal use of weapons or dangerous instrumentalities, obstruction of justice, and possession of a firearm by a person barred from having one because of certain felony convictions, according to local reporting on the affidavit. Jackson was later booked on one count of principal to second-degree murder. Both were being held without bond, and court appearances were expected in April. Prosecutors will likely focus on whether the messages, phone activity and Franklin’s own statements can show planning and direction rather than anger alone. Defense lawyers, once filings develop in open court, may challenge how investigators interpreted slang, reconstructed intent and handled statements made during questioning.

The victim’s death left a case that is both intimate and brutal: a father returning home, a parking lot turned into a crime scene, and a dispute over children now recast as a murder prosecution. The short quotations that have surfaced publicly are stark. Investigators say Franklin described being “tired of being disrespected,” while Jackson, according to the arrest documents, allegedly reassured him that neither would tell on the other. Those lines have become central because they compress the state’s theory into a few words: pressure, agreement and action. For relatives, neighbors and the children at the center of the custody case, the courtroom fight that was supposed to decide parenting rights instead became part of a homicide file.

Both defendants remain jailed and the next major step is the continued court process in Baton Rouge, where prosecutors are expected to begin testing the case in public filings and hearings.

Author note: Last updated April 20, 2026.