Eakin eventually confessed to murdering Sorger as part of a plea bargain and agreed to testify against Savoie.
[6] Craig Sorger, of Everett, was a thirteen-year-old boy with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,[7] and a special education student from Ephrata, Washington, a small town of around 6,000 people at the time.
[9] Evan Savoie, of Ephrata and Jake Eakin, of Moses Lake, were two twelve-year-old boys and special education students with learning disabilities.
[12] On the afternoon of February 15, 2003, Savoie and Eakin stopped by the Sorger residence and asked Craig's mother, Lisa, if he could play with them.
[13] A police officer soon discovered Sorger's dead body in a pile of leaves near a trail in the park along with the rock and tree branch used in the attack nearby.
[14] When police questioned Savoie and Eakin that night, they claimed they had been climbing trees and playing tag in the park until around 4:30 pm, when they saw Sorger head home.
[17] Although Savoie and Eakin both claimed innocence, they were charged with first and second-degree murder respectively and tried as adults by Grant County Superior Court Judge John Antosz.
[18] In February 2005, The Washington Supreme Court upheld the decision to try the boys as adults by declining to hear the case.
[3] Eakin finally confessed to his role in the killing in 2005, after spending 26 months in jail awaiting trial.
Prosecutors agreed to request a relatively light sentence of eight years in prison in exchange for the guilty plea.
[3] Grant County Superior Court Judge Kenneth L. Jorgensen ruled that there were no mitigating factors to allow for such a sentence of 8 years.
[1][3] Several members of Eakin's family, including his stepfather, Christopher, and mother, Tammy, cried and gasped as the verdict was read.
Grant County Superior Court Judge Kenneth L. Jorgensen, however, disagreed, ruling that Savoie's punishment must match his crime.
[6] On March 25, 2014, he was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison by Superior Court Judge John Hotchkiss.
[5] Eakin and Savoie remained incarcerated at Green Hill Training School until their 18th birthdays, when they were sent to separate adult prisons.
[11][g] He is married to a woman named Marissa,[30] who he met during their childhood and began dating her while he was still incarcerated and they have two daughters together.