JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 20-year-old serving a 15-year sentence for killing his grandmother won’t serve any extra time for brewing alcohol while in prison, Judge Roberto Arias decided Friday.
Logan Mott pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for killing his grandmother, Krista French, in 2017 and confessed to being intoxicated when he stabbed and shot her before burying her in the backyard of his father’s Neptune Beach home.
When he was sentenced in 2019, Mott told the court he would do everything in his power to stay away from alcohol.
But this month he pleaded guilty to brewing alcohol while in prison and prosecutors wanted his sentence extended. The state asked for 21 years and three months with up to 40 years to be added to Mott’s 15-year sentence.
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According to a report from November 2020, Mott was charged with introducing contraband into the Cypress Creek Juvenile Facility. In December 2022, alcohol was found again in his shared room.
Mott told the court it wasn’t his, but he took the blame for it.
“There was no point in trying to fight because I’m already being charged with violation of probation for making the alcohol. So even if it was mine or wasn’t I still would be found guilty, anyway,” Mott said.
Mott said he is not getting the mental health and alcohol rehabilitation he was supposed to in prison and has to adhere to gang rules on the inside.
Prosecutors asked the court to consider Mott’s pattern of deception, saying that’s what concerned them the most.
The judge agreed but declined to add time to Mott’s current sentence.
“He’s buying himself a 40-year sentence,” Arias said. “Because I am sure, as sure as I’m sitting here, even though we all have great hope and we all pray that he will do what he needs to do, I am telling all of you -- I may not be around when this happens -- he’s going to violate probation and he’s going to go back to prison.”
Mott has 10 years left on his sentence. His father, Eric, was in the courtroom during the sentencing hearing Friday.
News4JAX asked for a comment, and they declined.