JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Circuit Judge Bruce Anderson heard a lot about Logan Mott throughout the sentencing phase of his murder trial. He heard about his drinking, his depression and – as one doctor testified today – his “sadistic” tendencies.
But Wednesday was the first time the judge heard from Mott himself.
The 17-year-old entered the courtroom with an envelope in his hands which contained a statement that he read to the court. In a halting and tearful voice, he apologized for fatally shooting and stabbing his grandmother, Kristina French, in November of 2017. He spoke about how much he loved her, calling her “my friend, my mentor and my refuge.”
He did not explain his actions in November of 2017, calling it a “moment of drunken desperation.”
“I don’t know why I did this," Mott said. "I don’t have an explanation or excuses. I don’t blame my father or mother or anyone else for that matter. This is entirely my fault. And even though I don’t know entirely why I did this … I will always be ashamed of what I’ve done.”
He added, “If my grandmother was here today, I would tell her I’m sorry. …I love my grandmother. My actions will haunt me to my dying day.”
Mott’s father Eric Mott also addressed the court. He said his mother loved Logan more than anything and that locking him away for decades would be “like killing her all over again.”
“What Logan did was terrible," Eric Mott said. "He deserves to be punished."
But he said a long prison sentence would be a disservice to French's memory.
"Please know your honor that would not be justice for my mom," Eric Mott said. "Assign as much probation as you feel necessary but please sentence Logan to the lowest amount of time you are able. Give my mom justice by giving Logan some chance at a future when he gets out.”
Mott’s statement followed testimony from forensic psychologist William Meadows. He called Mott an “outlier” because his crime was so savage.
“Think of yourself doing that," Meadows said. "You’ve shot your grandmother, she is sitting there and bleeding on floor, now you’re going to take a knife and stab her repeatedly, including three times in the head. ..Most would not do that sort of behavior. That was extreme.”
Prosecutor Joe Licandro echoed that, pushing for the maximum sentence of 40 years.
“You killed your grandmother,” he said. “That’s just unconscionable.”
Public Defender Charlie Cofer conceded, “It’s a tragedy it’s horrible what happened to Kristina French,” but said the circumstances of Logan Mott’s life, and state of mind, call for leniency.
“It does the system no service to speculate about sinister motives,” Cofer said.
Judge Anderson says he has volumes of testimony to review, including “three legal pads full of notes.”
He set a court date of Dec. 19 at 8:30 a.m. to pronounce Mott's sentence.