The man who killed Tacoma taxi driver ‘Big Dave’ Crall gets decades in prison
A 21-year-old man who killed a taxi driver during a spree of Tacoma robberies last year was sentenced Wednesday.
Jurors convicted Eddie Lamont Hogan of first-degree murder last month for the death of 54-year-old Robert “Big Dave” Crall.
They also convicted Hogan of two counts of first-degree robbery, first-degree kidnapping, two counts of first-degree burglary, second-degree assault and first-degree unlawful gun possession.
Pierce County Superior Court Judge John Hickman sentenced Hogan to 62 years, three months in prison.
Prosecutors at trial said evidence suggested that in 30 hours Hogan tried to commit three robberies within six square blocks of Tacoma with the same revolver, and that during one of those robberies he killed Crall.
Crall’s cousin, Anne Rosander, addressed the court Wednesday.
“It just caused a lot of sorrow and pain and heartache,” Rosander told the judge. “... It’s just heart wrenching for a lot of people.”
Including Hogan’s family, she said.
Rosander said Hogan made a “stupid mistake” and that she hopes he takes time to reflect on what happened.
“You’re still young,” she told him.
Crall was found outside his cab with a gunshot wound to his chest March 15, 2018 in the 5800 block of South Montgomery Street. He died at the scene.
In the days prior, Hogan also robbed a man of his cellphone at gunpoint. Hogan pistol-whipped the man and fled.
Soon after, Hogan robbed a woman in her home at gunpoint and later returned and fired his gun.
The woman told the court Wednesday the experience terrified her and caused her to spiral downward. She served for 18 years in the military and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, she told the judge.
Deputy prosecutor Jesse Williams described Hogan as “someone who just lacked a sense of humanity and decency” and “simply has a broken morality when it comes to how he treats people ... .”
Still, Williams asked the court for a low-end sentence, which would have amounted to 71 years, six months.
The deputy prosecutor noted the lengthy firearm sentencing enhancements in the case, which were 33 years alone. A high-end sentence would have been more than 84 years.
“I take comfort in knowing the community will be protected from Mr. Hogan,” Williams said.
Defense attorney Dino Sepe asked for a sentence below his client’s standard sentencing range.
Sepe said Hogan would be serving the prosecutor’s recommended sentence until he was at least in his late 80s, even with good behavior, and that the life expectancy is lower for people in prison.
Sepe said his client had the brain maturity of someone in mid-adolescence and that Hogan has “difficulty relating cause and effect and understanding the consequences of his behavior.”
Hogan’s mother, Stephanie Viken, asked the judge to take her son’s mental health into consideration when deciding his sentence.
Viken said she tried to get her son help but noted children in the state can refuse treatment when they turn 13.
He’s underdeveloped mentally, she said, and has a substance abuse problem.
She also told the judge that Hogan has a good heart and that she wants him to have the possibility of a life after prison.
Hogan, who previously was found competent to stand trial, did not address the court.
State law allows judges to go below someone’s standard sentencing range if the person’s “capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his or her conduct” was “significantly impaired” — among other reasons.
As he handed down the sentence, Hickman noted Hogan’s mental illness and lack of maturity.
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