Sarah Errickson is sentenced in the killing of her half-sister Emily Cruddas. The victim's father, James Cruddas, spoke via Zoom, with his daughter's photo behind him.
"The pain was so intense I could not speak. It was like the world was at a standstill."
James Cruddas recalled the feeling of paralysis Feb. 17, 2023, when he got the call that his only child was gone.
Emily Cruddas was 21, and ready to start a life with her fiance, Joseph Ragan.
Instead, she was dead of a drug overdose in the Upper Township home she shared with her older half-sister, Sarah Errickson.
Three baggies of heroin were found by her body, but those who knew Sarah would never believe she willingly took the heroin/fentanyl mix found in her system.
"I knew right away that Sarah had something to do with it," Emily's aunt Barbara Merrifield told the judge at Errickson's sentencing for aggravated manslaughter.
Errickson, 37, was given eight years in prison under a plea agreement made last month, portraying the fatal overdose at accidental.
That is not the version the state has presented.
Errickson first incapacitated her sister with Xanax, according to Ragan's version.
He then held his hand over his fiancée's mouth, telling her to "take your medicine," as he watched Errickson shoot the drugs into her sister.
Ragan was sentenced to five years in prison last month for strict-liability drug-induced death, "not murder," reads his plea form previously reported by BreakingAC.
He could have faced 20 years.
Emily Cruddas posted on TikTok about the love she shared with Joseph Ragan. He now is in prison for her death."Emily's murder was orchestrated by Sarah, her own sister," James Cruddas' brother, Richard told the judge Monday in Cape May County Superior Court. "No one really believes injecting double-digit bags of heroin and fentanyl into someone would not kill them.
The two women shared a mother but had different fathers.
"Emily, in her last moments, knew she was going to die, and also knew she was going to die at the hands of her own sister and her own fiance," Richard Cruddas said.
No one would call 911 until the next day.
"The guilty continued to party for hours as Emily's body got cold," her uncle said. "But never as cold as their hearts in their soulless bodies."
Errickson cried as she read a statement to the court.
“I know what happened is heartbreaking and is something I can’t fix and never should have happened," she said. "I take full responsibility for my actions while getting high. I wish every day that I could go back and change it. I did and still do love my sister, and I will miss her the rest of my life.”
Her attorney said Errickson was a victim of domestic violence and psychological abuse "that left her open to various influences and manipulations."
That was a very different picture than the one those who knew Errickson painted in court.
"I witnessed her abuse," said Patricia Delcorio, the grandmother of Errickson's son.
"I was a victim of it as well," said Delcorio, who lived with the family while Sarah and Emily's mother was dying of cancer.
"(Sarah) was abusive to Emily and her mother," she said. "They were deathly afraid of her. She is a danger to society. Her actions were cold, cruel and premeditated."
It was their mother's will and an attempt to take what Errickson felt she was owed that led to Emily Cruddas' killing, Merrifield said.
She talked about a prior attack, where she said Errickson tied up her little sister for days not long before the killing.
Sarah Errickson appeared briefly via video from the jail Jan. 29, 2025. "Emily loved her older sister," Merrifield said. "She did everything to try to make Sarah love her back."
The family was not happy with the plea deal, asking the judge to reject it if he could. He indicated he could not, and tried to explain things to them.
"It's not a measure of the value of the life lost because that value is beyond measure," Judge Jeffrey Waldman said. "We're here not only to impose a sentence, but to recognize the profound loss suffered by your family members."
He cautioned the family that the plea takes into consideration the state's proofs.
"However strong you think the case may be, folks, these are thoroughly difficult cases for the state to prove," he said.
"To the family: Your loved one's life mattered," Waldman said. "She was more than a name in a case file. She was a person with hopes, relationships and a future that were unjustly taken."
Errickson must serve at least 85 percent of her sentence under the No Early Release Act, or about six years and 10 months.
She has credit for the nearly 15 months she has been in the Cape May County Correctional Facility.
Errickson also would have to give truthful testimony, according to the agreement. Since her only current co-defendant already was sentence, that points to her former fiance, Timothy Barrus.
Barrus has not been charged at this time.
It was his information provided two years after Cruddas' death that led to criminal charges against Ragan and Errickson in January of 2025.
By then, Ragan was living in Ottumwa, Iowa, where he was arrested Jan. 30, 2025, on a fugitive warrant.
Errickson will remain in the Cape May County Correctional Facility pending her transfer to state prison.
