A judge has set a Nov. 12 trial date for the adult son of former state Senator Sondra Lucht over allegations that he picked her up and threw her across the room into a wall, causing injuries that led to her death.
The trial date for Carl Lucht, 59, of Martinsburg was set by Circuit Judge Debra McLaughlin of Berkeley County.
A grand jury on May 20 determined that Carl Lucht should be indicted on felony murder and 1st degree robbery charges, concluding there was reason to believe he committed violence against his mother and took her cell phone, a checkbook, $20 cash and credit cards.
Carl Lucht also faces a count of assault during the commission of a felony. He is being held in the Eastern Regional Jail on $95,000 bond.
Sondra Lucht served as state Senate Education chairwoman during her time in office from 1983 to 1994. She was a Democrat and stood out for being a female legislator chairing a Senate committee. The year she was elected, there were just three female senators. By 1990, there were seven women serving in the Senate.
Lucht was a teacher and school psychologist. She was a former state president of the National Organization for Women. Lucht was instrumental in establishing the women’s domestic violence shelter that has since been rebranded EPEC (Eastern Panhandle Empowerment Center).
She also was a prominent representative of the Eastern Panhandle at a time when the region had less political sway than it does now.
Sondra Lucht’s serious injuries at her home last Oct. 15 eventually led to her death.
That day, according to a narrative by responding officers, police were dispatched about 4:15 p.m. to a report of a domestic incident at the Martinsburg home where Carl Lucht lived with his mother. The responding officer, Patrolman T.S. Wright, wrote that he arrived and spoke with a pest control company employee who had been there to provide service and heard a voice yelling for help.
The pest control company worker conveyed that he “entered the home and found a woman lying on the floor, twisted up around a stand, crying in pain.”
The woman, Lucht, asked the worker to help her up and into a chair. “She stated that her son beat her up and stole her checkbook and left,” according to the criminal complaint.
Wright, the responding officer, then asked Sondra Lucht what had occurred, an interview that was recorded on the officer’s bodycam. Lucht said that “her son had thrown her across the room.
“She stated that she was on the bed and that he had thrown her from the bed into the wall in the living room,” the officer wrote. “I did observe a hole in the wall where she stated that she was thrown into. She stated that her son Carl wanted more money and she was going to give him some but he got angry and took her checkbook.
“Mrs. Lucht stated that on the floor at least three hours that she could remember. She also stated that she was unconscious at one point, but was not sure how long.”
Sondra Lucht was transported to Berkeley Medical Center for further evaluation. Wright wrote that when he attempted to follow up, he was informed that she had been flown to The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md., to be treated in the intensive care unit.
She later died. a medical examiner’s report from authorities in Maryland was expected to provide insight into whether her death was a direct result of her injuries.