The adult son of former state Senator Sondra Lucht has pleaded no contest to allegations that he picked her up and threw her across the room into a wall, causing injuries that led to her death.
Carl Joseph Lucht, 60, entered the no contest plea this week in Berkeley County to counts of felony murder in the second degree and felony assault during commission of a felony.
Lucht now faces a prison sentence ranging from 12 to 50 years. Specifically, at sentencing, he faces a determinate sentence of between 10 to 40 years for the murder conviction and an indeterminate sentence of two to 10 years for the assault during the commission of a felony conviction.
His sentencing date is scheduled for August 13. He is being held in jail until that time.
A trial had been set in Berkeley County for earlier this month.
“I think that really good plea was reached,” said Berkeley County Prosecutor Joseph Kinser, speaking on Panhandle Live on WEPM Radio in Martinsburg. “I actually think this plea made sense, and and I think it serves the ends of justice.”
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.
“I cannot just be a senator. I am always a female senator. At first I resented that, but I think it is indicative of my era to be seen that way. I hope the next era will see men and women as senators regardless of their sex,” she said in a 1984 article about politics from a feminist viewpoint.
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 November 11th, 2024, 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.
“From my review of the evidence, and talking to people who were witnesses in the case, and preparing it for the trial, Mr. Lucht was certainly acting out of the ordinary that day,” Kinser said in the radio interview.
“I think many people who observed him believed that maybe he was on something. He’s never said that. He was given the opportunity to explore that as a possible defense, and he did not want to.”