Savoie sentenced to 20 years for 2003 murder

EPHRATA - An Ephrata man who pled guilty to beating and stabbing to death a boy more than 10 years ago was sentenced to 20 years in prison recently.

Evan Savoie, 23, was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2003 death of Craig Sorger. The state asked for and received the maximum sentence for Savoie.

According to previous Columbia Basin Herald articles, Savoie and Jake Eakin, both 12 at the time, beat and stabbed 13-year-old Sorger at an Ephrata park. Savoie and Eakin went to Sorger's house to ask his mom if he could come out and play. Sorger's mom became worried when he did not come home that evening.

Eakin was sentenced to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in April 2005.

Savoie was previously convicted of murder in 2006 and sentenced to 26 years, but that conviction was overturned in 2011 by the state Court of Appeals. 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. Prosecutors refiled murder charges against Savoie in December 2011.