VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Author's note: The video above is on file from 2019, when Ian Moreno was arrested for the murder of Estella Hoggard.
A Henrico, Virginia man was sentenced to spend 39 years in prison for brutally murdering his ex-girlfriend, who lived in Virginia Beach.
Courtney Ian Moreno, 44, pleaded guilty to First Degree Murder, Use of a Firearm, and Possession of Firearm by Convicted Felon back in August 2021.
Macie Allen, a spokeswoman for the Commonwealth's Attorney's office for Virginia Beach, said Moreno shot Estella Sophia Hoggard more than 20 times.
Allen said the commonwealth's attorney's office has evidence that shows on May 23, 2019, Hoggard complained to her boyfriend that Moreno was calling her, trying to pick up his university diploma, which he'd left with her.
She left her apartment around 10:30 p.m., and by midnight, a police officer had found her body.
Security cameras on South Lynnhaven Road show Moreno arriving at an empty parking lot first, around 10:40 p.m. Then, when Hoggard got there, her car stopped for a moment before rolling forward several hundred feet.
Hoggard later told police he shot her 16 or 17 times, emptying his gun's clip, before going over to her car and emptying a second clip of bullets while shooting her.
"In a recorded phone call Moreno made from the Henrico jail, he told a woman that he was angry because the victim had not given him all his stuff and that he 'was just doing what I had to do,'" Allen said. "He stated that he fired 36 shots and that 'some people ask for the s**t that get done to them.'"
When police arrested him from Henrico County, in his apartment, they found his Kaplan University diploma and Hoggard’s watch and GPS.