THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 31, 1995 TAG: 9507310104
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
Murder suspect Richard S. ``Ricky'' Hogarth is scheduled to come home today to face charges that he shot his girlfriend to death March 8.
Pasquotank County Sheriff Randy Cartwright and a deputy will travel to the Norfolk City Jail and pick up the 31-year-old man, who is slated to be released after serving 3 1/2 months on a grand larceny conviction related to the killing.
``He'll be brought back here, and we'll serve our papers and fingerprint and photograph him,'' Cartwright said Friday. ``I'm anxious to get him back here and get his case to court.''
Hogarth - of Main Street Extended, north of the city limits - has been indicted on charges of first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury with intent to kill.
He is accused of shooting to death Tracy Dawn Crafton and seriously wounding her stepgrandfather, Ron Revering, in the parking lot of the Zoom-In gas station and convenience store on U.S. Route 17 North.
Crafton, 24, of Shiloh, had arranged to be picked up by her grandparents, who had driven from Virginia Beach. She had told family members that Hogarth had recently beaten her and that she had sought a warrant for his arrest earlier in the week.
Crafton's grandmother, Shirley Revering, witnessed the shootings, which occurred moments after Crafton ran from Hogarth's pickup truck to her grandparents' van about 10:15 p.m.
On April 10, Hogarth pleaded guilty in Norfolk Circuit Court to stealing an acquaintance's car from the Ocean View area about an hour after the shootings. That crime landed him in the Norfolk City Jail.
The shootings and car theft kicked off a five-day interstate search for Hogarth, who reportedly traveled to Mississippi and Florida before returning to the Hampton Roads area. He was arrested March 13 after a car chase along Route 13 in Virginia.
Police later recovered a handgun that Hogarth had tossed from the window during the chase. Cartwright said Hogarth confessed to the killing when questioned shortly after his arrest.
Assistant District Attorney Mike Johnson said it would be ``several months, at least,'' before Hogarth's case goes to trial. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Richard Hogarth
by CNB