Savoie pleads guilty to second-degree murder
Evan Savoie, of Ephrata, sits in court in April 2006. Savoie, now 23, pleaded guilty this week to second-degree murder in the death of Craig Sorger, 12, of Ephrata.
EPHRATA - Evan D. Savoie pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with a deadly weapon enhancement in Grant County Superior Court Monday.
Savoie, 23, was originally charged with first-degree murder in the 2003 death of Craig Sorger.
According to court documents, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Ed Owens requested a continuance for the sentencing and stated he would argue for 20.3 years in prison.
The standard range for second-degree murder is 10 to 18 years in prison with two years added in enhancements.
A date has not been set for the sentencing.
Savoie will seek to present circumstances involving age, maturity, sophistication and development condition at the time of the incident and presently.
Savoie's attorney, Michael V. Felice, motioned to have Kenneth Muscatel, Ph.D., present at the sentencing hearing to give an evaluation and testimony. According to court documents, Muscatel was used previously in other hearings involved in the case and opined in 2003 that Savoie's case should have stayed in juvenile court.
According to a previous Columbia Basin Herald article, Savoie and Jake Eakin, both 12 at the time, allegedly beat up and stabbed 13-year-old Sorger in an Ephrata park in 2003.
Savoie and Eakin went to Sorger's house and invited him to play on the day of the murder. Sorger's mother started to worry when her son didn't return home.
Eakin was sentenced to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in April 2005.
Savoie was convicted in 2006 and sentenced to 26 years in prison, but the conviction was reversed in the state Court of Appeals in October 2011.
According to the decision, Grant County Superior Court violated Savoie's right as a minor to a public trial when now-retired Judge Ken Jorgenson closed a hearing.
Grant County prosecutors re-filed charges in December 2011.