Kevin Hughes killed for bribery fraud in Nashville music business

On March 9, 1989, at 11:00 p.m., police in Nashville rushed to Evergreen Records after shots were fired outside the Music Row studio.

“One of the patrol officers had never seen anything like it,” said author Jesse Sublett Sins of the SouthBroadcast Sundays at 7/6c on oxygen“There was so much blood.”

Sammy Sadler, 21, was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries. The other victim, Kevin Hughes, 23, died from gunshot wounds to the head.

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Sammy Sadler’s version of events

About 24 hours after the gunshot wound, Sadler awoke from the operating rooms and realized that Hughes was dead. Despite Sadler’s physical and emotional trauma, investigators tried to get as much information out of him as quickly as possible.

Sadler told investigators that he and Hughes went out to dinner after work and stopped by Evergreen Records to talk on the phone. It was the studio where Sadler recorded his first album. FoxNews.com reported.

After Sadler ended the phone call, he and Hughes walked to Hughes’ car, according to now-retired Nashville Police Department Detective Bill Pridemore. “Kevin had gotten into the car and Sammy was just about to open the car and get in when the shooter approached him and shot Sammy,” Pridemore said.

“Kevin jumped out of the car and started running,” Pridemore continued. “As he ran, he was shot once, fell down, and the shooter … fired two more shots.”

Sadler said he couldn’t see the masked gunman’s face clearly.

Sammy Sadler briefly a person of interest

For Sadler, an ambitious young country artist, chart positions are a key to success. Did he have anything to do with Hughes’ murder?

“We just didn’t feel like he was being completely honest with us,” Pridemore said. “I suspected he was involved, either directly or indirectly.”

But Sadler denied any involvement. If he had staged Kevin’s murder and used his own shooting as a cover, it was a very risky plan given the serious injuries he had sustained.

In addition, Sadler was willing to take a lie detector test and passed it. Investigators were convinced that Sadler was an innocent victim.

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Chuck Dixon and Tony D’Antonio in the crosshairs

Investigators found that Hughes was having problems at work and was considering quitting his dream job and leaving Nashville. “Kevin’s parents knew he was worried and anxious, and they knew his job was at stake,” Sublett said.

To learn more details about Hughes’ professional problems, investigators interviewed Cash Box employees. They also questioned Chuck Dixon, an influential independent music promoter who was often found at Cash Box.

Dixon seemed stunned by the shooting, according to Sins of the South. Richard “Tony” D’Antonio, former chart director of Cash Box magazine and one of Dixon’s friends, said he, too, was in the dark.

Although investigators had received evidence of “disputes over chart ratings,” Cash Box employees were too afraid to talk about it, Pridemore says.

A new clue emerges in another unsolved case

The Hughes murder case was not pursued. Then, in 1994, Pridemore was contacted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Pridemore learned that an undercover informant told a GBI agent that D’Antonio an unregistered weapon on March 9, 1989, the day of the shooting. IIt was a solid lead. But the hidden source was off limits until the case he was working on was solved.

In the course of working on the case, investigators came across a “bribery scheme” that Jacob proposed to Cash Box in the 1980s.

“Rumor has it that Dixon and Tony D’Antonio were paid to push their songs higher on the charts,” Jacob said.

The shady system was already in place when Hughes became chart director in 1987. Did Hughes clash with the men allegedly behind the alleged fraud?

The breakthrough in the case comes in 2002

Investigators believed they had found a motive for Hughes’ murder, but they lacked evidence. In 2002, Steve Daniel, the GBI informant, was no longer undercover.

Daniel told investigators that D’Antonio bought a gun from him in the late 1980s “on March 9, 1989,” Pridemore said.

“In 1993, Steve Daniel at Crime Stoppers heard about the murder of Kevin Hughes,” Pridemore added.

Daniel realized that D’Antonio matched the description of the shooter, who was said to have walked with a limp and Pridemore says D’Antonio “runs like a duck.”

The investigator also learned that D’Antonio had test fired the gun in a remote wooded area before purchasing it. proved to be a popular shooting spot. Pridemore collected numerous cartridges from the area in the hope of matching one of them with evidence from the Hughes crime scene.

Contrary to expectations, he was lucky. A firearms expert found “a perfect match” in the cartridge cases collected in the forest. “He said, ‘The bullet came out of Kevin’s head,'” Pridemore said.

Tony D’Antonio arrested for murder

In July 2002, D’Antonio was arrested in Las Vegas, where he worked as a casino pit boss, and was charged with murder and attempted murder.

In 2002, Langlois exposed the chart-manipulation scam at Cash Box magazine. She arrested local music promoter Robert Metzger for fraud.

Metzger wanted to apply pressure and shared information with her. He told her that Dixon, who died of cancer in 2001, and D’Antonio were behind Hughes’ murder.

“According to Robert Metzger, he witnessed an argument between Chuck Dixon and Kevin Hughes about a week before Kevin’s death,” Langlois said. “Chuck wanted to give him money. Kevin Hughes refused the money.”

Dixon and D’Antonio feared that Hughes would expose their dirty dealings, so D’Antonio took responsibility.

The trial against D’Antonio began in 2003. Metzger, Daniel and Sadler testified for the prosecution. D’Antonio had claimed at the time of the shooting, He was at home with his wife, Sublett said. His now-ex-wife testified in court that he did not come home until after 3 a.m. that night, Sublett said.

On September 4, 2003, D’Antonio was found guilty of murder and attempted murder. He was sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2014.

Learn more about the “Death in Music City“, watch Sins of the SouthBroadcast Sundays at 7/6c on Oxygen.