A violent felon who police believe fatally strangled a 19-year-old woman at a Vancouver homeless camp in 2014 was sentenced Thursday in Clark County Superior Court to 21 years and nine months in prison.
Gregory Antonio Wright’s sentence will run concurrent with a previous kidnapping and assault conviction, however, meaning he will actually serve just more than six years for the killing.
Wright, 37, entered an Alford plea earlier this month to first-degree manslaughter in the July 2014 death of Daytona Hudgins. In an Alford plea, a defendant maintains his innocence but admits there is enough evidence to convict him. He originally faced a charge of second-degree murder.
Wright has denied strangling Hudgins. He declined to make a statement during sentencing.
His attorney, Louis Byrd Jr., and Deputy Prosecutor James Smith both said that Hudgins’ cause of death was in dispute, which in part led to the plea agreement. The defense argues that Hudgins died of a drug overdose. However, the Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled that Hudgins died of homicide by strangulation.
Hudgins’ mother, Indy Rice, attended the sentencing and submitted a statement to the court. But she declined to read it aloud.
“I would love to, but I don’t think I can,” Rice said through sobs from the gallery.
Judge Scott Collier told Rice that he understands no sentence he imposes will bring back her daughter, “but hopefully it will bring some closure.”
Vancouver police discovered Hudgins’ body at about 2:30 a.m. July 19, 2014, behind iCellular Phone Repair, 2803 Fort Vancouver Way, while investigating a suspicious circumstance. Her body was surrounded by bedding, clothing, cans of food and garbage, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case.
A witness said Wright had been at the transient camp that night, and he allegedly told the witness he blacked out and woke up to find Hudgins dead, the affidavit said.
Wright was arrested in November 2014 on a charge of failing to register as a sex offender. While in custody, detectives interviewed him twice and, during the second interview, he admitted to strangling Hudgins, court records state. He reportedly told investigators it was an accident and that he choked her in the course of sex. His DNA was also found on Hudgins’ clothing, according to court documents.
In March 2016, Wright — a Level 3 sex offender — was sentenced to 15 years and six months in prison for attacking a female mental health counselor after trapping her inside the Clark County Jail’s medical unit in January 2015.
