Robber who gunned down Home Depot manager is sentenced to death

A San Diego man was sentenced to death on Monday for killing a Home Depot manager during a robbery in Tustin five years ago.

Jason Russell Richardson, 41, of Oceanside, was convicted of murder in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana for shooting Thomas Egan to death in February 2007 after confronting the manager and ordering him to empty the store's safe.

After the shooting. Richardson stole $500 from another store employee and fled, prosecutors said.

Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Cameron Talley, who prosecuted the case, said Richardson had a criminal history for kidnapping and rape and deserved the death penalty considering the way he shot Egan like he was “swatting a fly.”

“He’s just a bad, evil man,” Talley said. “If he could die twice, I’d try him again.”

DNA evidence found in a sock in which Richardson was carrying ammunition linked the Oceanside man to the slaying, prosecutors said. Previous juries had twice failed to reach a verdict regarding the death penalty in earlier hearings.

Egan was survived by a wife and two twin girls who were 3 at the time of the slaying. His widow spoke during sentencing Monday.

“He stole the memory of their dad,” Talley said of the children.   

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-- Matt Stevens

Photo: Jason Russell Richardson. Credit: Department of Motor Vehicles