After spending a day discussing a plea deal that would send her son to prison for murder, Star Hogan woke up at 5 a.m. and typed.
Then she walked through the snowy streets of Charleston hand-delivering letters to the prosecuting attorney, her son's defense attorney and Kanawha Circuit Judge Charles King.
Her son, Terrick Hogan, faces a charge of first-degree murder in the January 2015 killing of Kalvon Casdorph. Hogan read the letter his mother wrote during his hearing Tuesday, and decided to request a new lawyer, rejecting the plea agreement that he had signed that morning. The deal would have given him life in prison with a parole hearing after 15 years.
King said he had no choice but to remove Hogan's defense attorney, Troy Giatras, from the case.
"I don't particularly like it," King said, "but I think I must under the circumstances."
Hogan, of St. Albans, was one of three people who faced charges for the killing of Casdorph. Marcus Dominick Curtis, of Dunbar, and Shayla Stephenson, of St. Albans, have already signed plea agreements for their parts in the crime. Curtis received a life sentence for first-degree murder, with a chance at parole after 15 years, and Stephenson, the mother of Hogan's child, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery.
Casdorph was killed at Motel 6. Curtis, who was Casdorph's friend, has admitted that he shot Casdorph, but said Hogan was sending him text messages encouraging him to rob Casdorph.
In turning down his plea deal, Hogan could potentially lose the agreement that Giatras had gotten for him. In Star Hogan's letter to the prosecutor she asked for the sentence to be reduced to second-degree murder, instead of first.
Assistant Kanawha prosecutor Maryclaire Akers turned that down.
"Under the law, the mastermind of what happened is Terrick Hogan," Akers said. "No, I will not reduce that term."
Akers said that if the case goes to trial, she will push to have Hogan sentenced for first-degree murder with no chance for parole.
Star Hogan said that her goal in the letters was to raise attention to what she believes are flaws in her son's representation, and that the decision to reject the plea was her son's. She wouldn't say if she thought he should have accepted the plea deal.
When asked by the judge why he wanted a new lawyer, Terrick Hogan said that he felt his lawyer hadn't tried hard enough to get a lesser sentence.
"I've contacted him on numerous occasions," Hogan said. "I've seen him once in this whole process outside of the courthouse, outside of this courtroom."
After the judge granted Hogan his request for new representation, the victim's mother, Natalie Casdorph, raised her hand to speak.
"I would like it to end," Natalie Casdorph said in a testimony that brought her and Hogan's loved ones to tears. "In God's gloried name I would like it to end."
But Hogan's family plans on fighting as well. While Star Hogan said she felt her son had some responsibility for the crime, she didn't agree that he was the mastermind.
"There's two sides to the story," Star Hogan said. "I know they're trying to villainize him, but I'm trying to humanize him."
Both families shed tears in the courtroom during the hearing and as Natalie Casdorph walked out, Star Hogan said "God bless you."
She said that she had been praying for Natalie Casdorph, for all the suffering she's gone through, but she still wanted a fair trial for her son.
"We're not stopping," Hogan said. "This is his life. He's a young man."
After the hearing, King appointed Charleston lawyer Edward Bullman as Hogan's new defense attorney.
Reach Daniel Desrochers at dan.desrochers@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow @drdesrochers on Twitter.