MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — The Martinsburg man who killed his mother, former state Senator Sondra Lucht, was sentenced to a long prison term Thursday.
Carl Lucht, 60, was sentenced to consecutive sentences after a no contest plea earlier this summer.
Lucht violently assaulting Sondra Lucht, 81, in their Martinsburg home in November 2024. She later died of the injuries she suffered.
Berkeley County Assistant Prosecutor Megan Yates told the court Thursday, Carl Lucht, who had been deemed competent to stand trial, refused to accept responsibility when he entered a no-contest plea in June.
In the end, Carl Lucht was sentenced to 40 years in prison on the first charge of felony murder in the second degree. On the second charge, felony assault during the commission of a felony, he received an indeterminate sentence of two to 10 years. Those sentences will run consecutively.
Family members of the victim sat in the front row at Thursday’s sentencing. Neither they nor the defendant gave any statements during the hearing, but Sondra Lucht’s niece, following the proceedings said they were pleased with the outcome.
Berkeley County Prosecutor Joe Kinser tells the Panhandle News Network Lucht technically could be eligible for a parole hearing in 12 years.
Berkeley County Circuit Judge Deborah McLaughlin said she would not recommend parole for Lucht and ruled the sentences to run consecutively. She remarked that should his appeals for parole be denied, he would be an elderly man when he served his full sentence who would have no family on the outside, having “burned those bridges.”
As part of the sentencing, McLaughlin ordered Carl Lucht to have no contact with the victim’s family.
McLaughlin pointed out during sentencing that the defendant did not show mercy to his mother when he, “left her on the floor” and did not call 911 or ask for help. Sondra Lucht required surgery and survived for 12 days in a Baltimore hospital before her death following the Nov. 11, 2024 assault.
Yates said Sondra Lucht lived long enough to tell police and family members what had happened.
The details are disturbing. Yates said the defendant, who had quit his job under the pretense of taking care of his elderly mother, was in fact not caring for her or the condition of the home they shared.
“He had no job, no money, no checking account,” Yates said. “What he did have was a mother who loved him.”
Yates said remarks made on the day of Carl Lucht’s arrest and statements made prior to that painted a picture of a man who resented his mother.
On the day of the assault, according to the victim, Carl Lucht had asked for money. Sondra Lucht told investigators she complied, but her son wanted more money and when she did not comply quickly enough, he grabbed his mother and threw her against a wall hard enough to cause a hole in the drywall and when she told him she thought her leg was broken, he said, “Good.”
The victim told police she had been lying on the floor for at least three hours before a pest control company employee who had been working near the home heard her crying for help.
Carl Lucht “left her there lying on the floor of her home to die,” Yates said, adding before he left, Lucht took the victim’s phone, wallet, credit card, and check book.
Yates said when officers referred to the incident that had occurred at his home, Lucht spoke of his mother using profanity.
Speaking about the case on WEPM earlier this year, Kinser said the defendant’s behavior on the day of the assault might offer clues.
“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.”
Lucht’s attorney Craig Manford argued his client had no substantial criminal history before the arrest related to the death of his mother, adding Carl Lucht had a history of mental illness and that “addiction was a motivating factor.”
“The victim’s family never wants him to get out (of prison),” Manford said. “That is understandable. An elderly woman lost her life.”
Lucht opted to not speak on his own behalf during the sentence. Instead, wearing orange WVDCR Inmate clothing, Lucht sat beside his attorney and seemed to be listening intently to the proceedings.
Manford said his client, “wants to put this behind him and pay his debt to society.”
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).
Katie Spriggs is the executive director of EPEC now:
“We’re actually the same organization founded in 1977 by people like the senator and legal aid attorneys and Shepard’s social work department and community members all coming together and founding it.
And then we changed the name in 2018 just because we serve more than women.”
The irony of the circumstances of Sondra Lucht’s death is not lost on advocates like Katie Spriggs:
“It highlights a piece of domestic violence that we often don’t talk about, which is family violence, because they weren’t intimate partners,” Spriggs said. “They were mother and son. That gets overlooked sometimes.”
Outside the courthouse Thursday, Berkeley County Prosecutor Kinser said he was very pleased with the outcome, adding the sentencing amounts to a “just result.”
“This case involved a tragic act of violence that claimed the life of a distinguished member of this community who dedicated her life to serving the Eastern Panhandle. With the sentence imposed today, justice under the law was achieved. I am thankful to the investigators and the prosecutors and support staff in my office involved in this case. Without their dedication to justice this outcome would not have been possible.”