Death penalty sought in store manager shooting

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office has charged Jason Russell Richardson, a man accused of shooting and killing a Home Depot store manager, with one count of murder during the commission of a robbery, a special circumstances charge that carries the death penalty in California.

Richardson is being held without bail. According to the Tustin Police Department, the 37-year-old parolee has been previously convicted of rape, sexual assault on a minor, residential burglary, grand theft, possession of stolen property and narcotics charges.

The victim, assistant store manager Tom Egan, was shot and killed after he came to the assistance of a cashier being robbed at a Home Depot store in Tustin, Calif., on Feb. 9, 2007. The robber came into the store disguised in painter’s coveralls, dust mask and hard hat. Based on DNA evidence left at the scene, police arrested Richardson two weeks later.

Aformer U.S. Marine, Egan is survived by his wife and twin daughters, aged 4. He was an employee of Home Depot for 13 years.