The Alexandria Circuit Court sent a clear message that crime in the city does not pay as two defendants were sentenced to life plus 10 years and 30 years in prison for aggravated malicious wounding and robbery.
Charles Gregg will spend the rest of his life in prison and John Crawley will serve 30 years for their parts in the crime. Diane Nichols was brutally beaten in the course of the robbery of which the defendants were found guilty.
The crime occurred on Aug. 21, 2001. Gregg and Crawley beat Nichols and took her purse, which contained $120.
“Diane was hospitalized for 10 days and continues to undergo treatment by three doctors,” said Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Erik Barnett. “She has no sense of smell or taste, has dents in her skull, the left side of her face is visibly sunken and she continues to suffer severe pain.”
The case was solved because of the intervention of a “good samaritan” who came to Nichols’ aid after hearing her screams. “That individual was able to get the license plate numbers on the get-away car and provide police with that information,” Barnett said.
Police apprehended the driver of the car just hours after the attack and eventually gained his cooperation. Elvin Huggins, the driver of the car, has pled guilty to robbery and will be sentenced later this month.
“This case really could not have been solved without the excellent work of the police,” Barnett said. “Officers who arrived on the scene provided invaluable assistance to the victim and transmitted the information about the suspects’ vehicle to other patrol officers. Detective Irv Ellman handled the investigation extremely well, securing the cooperation of Huggins, enabling us to obtain guilty verdicts in the other two cases.”
SENTENCING
The sentencing guidelines recommended a maximum of 23 years in prison for Gregg and 13 years for Crawley. Because of the nature of the crime, Barnett asked the judge to go beyond that recommendation. “Gregg, in particular, is likely to commit other crimes if he is allowed to be released into society,” Barnett said.
The judge agreed. “We are very pleased with this sentence,” Barnett said.