Father of slain NC school pupil outraged by errors that gave suspect freedom | USAEMALL.com

An already grieving father was further enraged upon learning that the man accused of killing his daughter in a home burglary could have already been in prison for numerous other crimes had it not been for an apparent clerical error.

Logan Federico, a 22-year-old aspiring teacher from Waxhaw, North Carolina, was visiting friends at the University of South Carolina in Columbia and staying at a Cypress Street home when a “career criminal” broke in and shot her in the early morning hours of May 3.

Suspect Alexander Dickey, a 30-year-old man with a lengthy rap sheet, entered the home in the early morning, stole several credit and debit cards and fatally shot Logan in what Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook described as a “random” crime during a May 5 press conference.

“The main cog in this whole problem was the processing system of a career criminal that eventually escalated to executing Logan Federico,” Logan’s father, Stephen Federico, told Fox News Digital. “And this wasn’t just a random go-in-and-shoot-somebody. This was a guy that was a career criminal. And that’s why I hate the word ‘random’ being used. He wasn’t a random criminal. He was a career criminal that came across my daughter… and literally stuck a gun in her rib cage and pulled the trigger, for absolutely no reason.”

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Logan Federico had dreams of becoming a teacher. (Handout/Fox News)

Dickey has nearly 40 prior arrests across different North Carolina counties dating back more than a decade. He pleaded guilty to a first offense of third-degree burglary in 2023 and was sentenced to probation, despite having previously been convicted of second and third-degree burglary charges in 2014, as WIS first reported.

Now, different South Carolina officials and agencies are pointing fingers at each other over what appear to have been two clerical errors that led to gaps in Dickey’s record.

“There are more people … fighting for the rights of a career criminal than fighting for the right for my daughter to be safe.”

— Stephen Federico

“There are so many things that I think have changed in the last 20 years… where I think that Dickie actually has more rights than Logan did,” Federico said. “[T]here are more people fighting for the rights of a career criminal than fighting for the right for my daughter to be safe. … Really think about how horrible that is — that somebody with 39 arrests, 25 felonies, was treated with more respect than Logan Federico.”

Federico described his daughter Logan’s personality as “electric … outgoing, personable, infectious.” (Adam Eugene Willis for Fox News Digital)

In August 2014, Dickey was charged with grand larceny. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) received his fingerprints associated with that arrest, and the charge and disposition appear on his criminal history, the agency told Fox News Digital.

Dickey was served with four additional burglary and larceny warrants in August 2014, but those charges and dispositions do not appear on his criminal history, and SLED said it did not receive additional prints for that set of charges. 

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Alexander Dickey, 30, has 40 criminal and traffic charges dating back to 2013. (Lexington SC Detention Center)

In October 2014, authorities served three additional warrants on burglary and larceny charges. Those charges and dispositions do not appear on his criminal history, SLED said, adding that the agency did not receive additional prints for this set of charges.

A first-degree burglary charge carries a minimum 15-year prison sentence, and a maximum life sentence. In November 2014, Dickey pleaded guilty to second-degree non-violent burglary and was sentenced to 10 years suspended, meaning he would not have to immediately serve any prison time.

Stephen Federico looks at a photo of his daughter, Logan Federico, on his phone. (Adam Eugene Willis for Fox News Digital)

In March 2015, Dickey had one of his two other burglary charges from 2014 dropped and pleaded guilty to a first offense of third-degree burglary, which carries a lighter sentence than a second or third offense.

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In 2023, he again pleaded guilty to a first offense of third-degree burglary — for a second time.

WATCH:

Rick Hubbard, Solicitor of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, told WIS he didn’t know of Dickey’s prior convictions, which ultimately impacted his sentencing in 2023. Hubbard alleged that Dickey’s criminal record, or rap sheet, filed with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) was incomplete.

Fox News Digital reached out to Hubbard’s office for comment.

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Federico said that when he learned of the error in Dickey’s rap sheet that could have kept him off the streets years ago, it was “the most horrendous thing other than” the phone call he received on the day his daughter was murdered.

Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook described the crime as “random” and the suspect, 30-year-old Alexander Dickey, as a “career criminal” during a Monday press conference. (Columbia PD)

“If he’s not out on the street… this meeting never happens,” Federico said of Dickey’s encounter with his daughter on May 3.

SLED suggested the rap sheet was incomplete because the agency never got Dickey’s fingerprints for the 2014 arrest for burglary, which should have come from the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department.

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“The shooting that ended the life of Logan Federico was a senseless tragedy that left her family and friends in pain,” Lexington County Sheriff’s Office told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Their pain prompts us in law enforcement to help prosecutors forge a rock-solid case against Alexander Dickey when his day in court comes.”

Stephen Federico recounts the moment he learned his daughter, Logan, had been fatally shot while visiting friends at USC in Columbia, South Carolina. (Adam Eugene Willis for Fox News Digital)

But the sheriff’s department added that Dickey’s full record was readily available, even if his fingerprints were not included in his SLED rap sheet.

“Anyone in the criminal justice system who had a role in his numerous cases over the past decade could access his long criminal history…”

— Lexington County Sheriff’s Department

“Anyone in the criminal justice system who had a role in his numerous cases over the past decade could access his long criminal history and see a variety of charges, including 23 arrests in Lexington County alone,” the department said. “His felony charges from April 2013 through April 2024 are on his rap sheet and also listed on the court’s public website.”

The sheriff’s office said Dickey’s charges involving eight different law enforcement agencies led the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department to book Dickey 11 times between 2013 and 2025.

Logan Federico was a 22-year-old aspiring teacher from North Carolina, working two jobs while studying at Central Piedmont Community College. (handout)

“Dickey was held in [Lexington County Detention Center] from Aug. 13, 2014 until he was sent to state prison Nov. 21, 2014. His fingerprints were taken during the booking process on Aug. 13, 2014,” the department said. “Concerns have been raised as to whether his fingerprints were transmitted according to protocol after he was served additional arrest warrants while still in LCDC later in August and October 2014. We have reviewed all of Dickey’s bookings and we were unable to determine if his prints were taken at the time of those additional in-custody bookings in 2014. It’s possible the lack of prints associated with those bookings were the result of human or machine error.”

The sheriff’s department further added that it has “worked with state law enforcement and prosecutors in the weeks since Logan’s death to ensure the information from Dickey’s 11 bookings at LCDC is accurate.”

“Since his last arrest, we have provided Dickey’s fingerprints to state police to complete the August and October 2014 booking files. It’s important to note the cases in question were adjudicated and Dickey was sentenced on those charges in 2014 and 2015,” the department said. “As the agency that apprehended and arrested Dickey following his most recent crime wave over multiple jurisdictions, we have a significant role in this case.”

Logan Federico, a 22-year-old aspiring nurse, was fatally shot during a Columbia home break-in on the morning of May 3. (Columbia PD)

Stephen Federico said he is grateful to law enforcement for solving his daughter’s murder within 36 hours after she was found dead, but he is determined to expose problems within the criminal justice system that allowed Dickey to remain on the streets before he allegedly killed Logan.

“I am angry, and I’m trying to be very professional, very respectful, and I will never, ever downgrade what the law enforcement did for me and my family and Logan in 36 hours of solving this case. And it hasn’t gone to the courts yet, but it will, and they keep accumulating evidence and evidence, and are doing a great, outstanding job. But that doesn’t mean… that there aren’t holes in the system,” he said.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of why it happened,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going to come of that. The finger pointing… everybody can finger point everywhere they want. But there is a process that’s gonna lead us back to where it started and where it ended and who needs to be held responsible for it.”

Dickey is charged with murder, two counts of first-degree burglary, two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, two counts of grand larceny, grand larceny of a motor vehicle, and three counts of financial transaction card theft.

His next court appearance is scheduled for July 25. He faces life in prison for the charges filed against him in Lexington County.

Dickey’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.