By Associated,Editor,Melissa Koenig

Copyright dailymail

The grieving father of an aspiring teacher who was murdered by a career criminal earlier this year blasted lawmakers for soft-on-crime policies that repeatedly released him before her slaying.

Stephen Federico, the father of 22-year-old Logan Haley Federico, spoke at a Congressional hearing in North Carolina on Monday designed to tackle growing concerns over violent crime and repeat offenders.

The hearing was held in response to the murder of Ukrainian woman Iryna Zarutska onboard a train in Charlotte, which sparked widespread outrage after it was revealed that her killer was also released numerous times before the tragedy.

Federico grew emotional as he recounted how his young daughter had been visiting friends in Columbia, South Carolina on May 3 when she crossed paths with Alexander Dickey, 30, a repeat offender with a rap sheet of 39 arrests, including 25 felonies.

The career criminal is accused of breaking into the house where Logan was sleeping beside her boyfriend, and shooting her in the chest with a stolen 12-gauge shotgun.

‘How many of y’all have kids? When I tell you this story… think about your child,’ the grieving father told federal lawmakers on the House judiciary subcommittee.

‘Think about your child coming home from a night out with friends, lying down, going to sleep, feeling somebody come into the room… and wake them. And drag her out of her bed. Naked. Forced on her knees with her hands over her head. Begging for her life. Begging for her hero – her father. Me. That couldn’t be there,’ Stephen continued, his voice shaking as he spoke.

Police have said that Dickey had broken into multiple homes in the years before he killed Logan, and after shooting her he went on a spending spree with her credit cards before he was arrested.

‘He should have been in jail for over 140 years for all the crimes he committed,’ Stephen said on Monday. ‘You know how much time he spent in prison? A little over 600 days in 10 years.

‘He’s only 30 years old. He was committing 2.65 crimes a year since he was 15 years old. But nobody could figure out that he couldn’t be rehabilitated.

‘Well you’d have to put him in prison to see if he could be rehabilitated,’ Stephen said. ‘Isn’t that the idea of prison? But no.’

He went on to tell how his young daughter had just discovered her dream to be a teacher weeks before she was brutally murdered.

‘She finally figured it out,’ he said. ‘Two weeks before she was executed.’

‘All she wanted to do was visit her friends, and she was executed on her knees begging for her life,’ Stephen continued, arguing that ‘there is only one thing that would have kept my daughter alive and that is putting a career criminal in prison.’

He concluded his remarks by vowing to continue to fight for justice for his daughter.

‘I will fight until my last breath for my daughter,’ he said.

‘You need to fight for the rest of our children, the rest of the innocents and stop protecting the people that keep taking them from us. Please,’ Stephen pleaded to the lawmakers.

‘I’m not going to be quiet until somebody helps,’ he continued. ‘Logan deserves to be heard. Everyone on this panel deserves to be heard. And we will – trust me.’

‘We’re asking you. We’re begging you all to stop this,’ the heartbroken father said.

Prosecutors have said Dickey crept into a fraternity house bedroom in the early hours of May 3, where Logan was asleep beside her boyfriend.

Startled awake, she screamed. Dickey then allegedly forced her to her knees, naked and begging for help, before shooting her in the chest with a stolen 12-gauge shotgun. Prosecutors say he then fled in a stolen vehicle.

The career criminal is now facing two counts of first-degree burglary, two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, for which he may face federal charges.

Additionally, Dickey was charged with two counts of grand larceny, grand larceny of a motor vehicle, and three counts of financial transaction card theft.

He is being held at the Lexington County Detention Center without bail and is awaiting trial. He has not entered a plea in the case.

It remains unclear why Dickey was not behind bars for previous offenses.

But Federico has alleged that between 2013 and 2015, Dickey’s fingerprints were never taken, prompting his release from jail.

Additional reasons for the alleged massive systematic failure could have been due to the fingerprints getting botched in the process or a glitch in the system.

However, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) claimed the prints were never sent.

Federico has previously told the Daily Mail he now hopes President Trump and US Attorney General Pam Bondi can help him put Dickey on death row.

‘Our justice system failed both young ladies,’ he said of his daughter and Zarutska.

‘They failed my daughter first. Maybe if Logan’s murder had gotten national attention, it might have been able to prevent the death of the Ukrainian girl.’

The grieving father is also working to get Dickey federally charged, and says he has been in talks with senior officials in the Department of Justice, including Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

He said he wants to have it handled without Solicitor Bryan Gipson of District 5, Richland County, who he said does not believe in the death penalty.

Meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance debated how best to prevent career criminals from reoffending.

Democrats called for more funding for local prosecutors, saying understaffed offices are overwhelmed and cannot keep up with the case load.

They placed the blame on Republicans, who they said reduced crime-control funds and failed to provide mental health services.

‘The hearing for me is not really about public safety,’ said Democrat Rep. Alma Adams, who represents much of Charlotte. ‘It’s about my colleagues trying to paint Democrats as soft-on-crime – and we’re not – and engaging in political theater, probably to score some headlines.

Republicans, meanwhile, blamed lenient policies and liberal judges.

They argued that additional funding alone would not have prevented Zarutska or any of the other victim’s deaths.

‘This is not [the] time for politics. This is not time for any race. It’s not time of any party. It’s about a time of justice,’ Republican Rep. Ralph Norman, of South Carolina, said.

In response to Zarutska’s death, the Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature last week approved a criminal justice package that would bar cashless bail in many circumstances, limit the discretion magistrates and judges have in making pretrial release decisions and seek to ensure more defendants undergo mental health evaluations.

The bill now sits on Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s desk for his consideration.