Flaws in the system: Could fixing errors have saved Logan Federico’s life?

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - Stephen Federico lost his daughter, Logan, in a home invasion and shooting that he believes never should have happened.

In the early morning of May 3, the Columbia Police Department said 22-year-old Logan Federico was in a home in the Old Shandon neighborhood. Her father says she was in town from North Carolina, visiting friends.

At the same time, investigators say 30-year-old Alexander Dickey was on a crime spree. They say he started his night by stealing a car and then went into a home on Cypress Street where he stole car keys, a wallet and a gun.

Then, police said he entered the unlocked home next door, where Federico was. He then shot and killed her before running off, investigators said.

“It should have never happened,” her father said.

A PATTERN OF BURGLARY – HIDDEN BY A DISCREPANCY

The incident involving Federico was far from Dickey’s first break-in.

In August 2014, Dickey was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree burglary, a sentence that carries a minimum prison sentence of 15 years. The maximum sentence allowed is life in prison.

In October, while he was still in custody at the Lexington County Detention Center, detention center records show Dickey was served warrants for a third first-degree burglary charge from the Lexington police.

A month later, Dickey pleaded guilty to second-degree non-violent burglary instead of first-degree burglary. He was sentenced to 10 years suspended during probation.

Four months later, in March 2015, Dickey was back in court for the other two burglary charges. Court records show one charge was dropped.

For the other charge, Dickey pleaded guilty to a first offense of third-degree burglary, even though he’d pleaded guilty to burglary just months before.

In 2023, Dickey was in court again and pleaded guilty to another burglary.

He was originally facing a charge of violent second-degree burglary. Instead, Dickey pleaded guilty to a first offense, third-degree burglary for a second time.

Eleventh Circuit Solicitor Rick Hubbard said when his office prosecuted Dickey in 2023, they did not know about his previous burglary arrests and convictions.

Had they known, Hubbard said his office would not have prosecuted Dickey’s case as a first offense and Dickey would have likely received a longer sentence.

A MISSING FINGERPRINT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

Why didn’t prosecutors know Dickey was charged and convicted of previous burglaries?

Hubbard said it’s because Dickey’s RAP sheet — or criminal record — was incomplete. Hubbard says his office uses that record when determining how they should prosecute crimes.

When a defendant is booked into jail and arrested, the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division is sent fingerprints.

A SLED spokesperson said the receipt of fingerprints triggers SLED to attach a new arrest to a subject’s criminal history.

The receipt of fingerprints by SLED is what triggers SLED to attach a new arrest to a subject’s criminal history. SLED did not receive fingerprints for the 2014 Burglary First Degree arrest.

In 2023, Dickey’s criminal record from the State Law Enforcement Division was more than a dozen pages long, but not one burglary charge was listed.

“SLED did not receive fingerprints from the 2014 Burglary First Degree arrest,” Renée Wunderlich, SLED’s director of public information, said in an email.

The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department reviewed what happened after WIS Investigates contacted them.

The department’s public information officer, Capt. Adam Myrick, said prints from Dickey’s August 2014 booking were taken and submitted to SLED.

Despite that, only one of his seven charges from that day is listed in Dickey’s criminal record.

WIS Investigates has contacted SLED for a comment on this discrepancy.

“We do not know if he was printed in October [2014] or not. We simply do not know,” Myrick said.

Days after WIS Investigates made agencies aware of the discrepancy, Myrick said new prints were hand-delivered to SLED.

An updated copy of Dickey’s criminal record shows the previously missing charges are now listed.

OLD SLED CATCH FILE ON DICKEY

NEWER, UPDATED SLED CATCH FILE ON DICKEY

‘YOU DON’T NEED THAT FINGERPRINT’

Stephen Federico believes the systemic issues that led up to his daughter’s death are larger than a fingerprint.

Dickey was charged in 2019 with a crime that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years: armed robbery with a deadly weapon.

Instead, he pleaded guilty to a charge of “common law robbery, strong arm robbery” and was sentenced to four years in prison.

Nearly three years later, Dickey pleaded guilty again to the lesser, first-offense burglary charge.

“With that pattern, why would anybody give him a lesser sentence? A lesser charge? How does that make any sense?” Federico asked. “I need that explained to me. Like why?”

WIS Investigates sent Hubbard a list of questions regarding several of Dickey’s prior cases.

Hubbard said that because Dickey has pending charges in his circuit, he can’t comment on Dickey’s past cases.

A FATHER’S PROMISE

Stephen Federico said his fight for justice is just beginning.

“She fought for the underdog,” he said. “She cared about people.”

He now says Logan is the underdog, and it’s his job to fight for her.

“Something is going to change from this. It has to,” said Stephen Federico. “I can’t have one of my friends, I can’t have a stranger parent go through this. They have no idea what it’s like. You can’t possibly until you live it.”

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