Slain FBI agent's mother: Remember Sam Hicks as hero

Charlotte Carrabotta, the mother of FBI agent Samuel S. Hicks who was gunned down in 2008 while serving a warrant in Indiana Township, admits reading and viewing news accounts of the early release from prison Tuesday of Christina Korbe has been “very difficult” for the Hicks family.

“And I really do not wish (Korbe) any ill will. I do hope one day she is able to make something of herself,” Carrabotta said.

“But I will say that she is not the hero here. People and the media should keep in mind Sam was the hero for doing his job, protecting the public,” said Carrabotta, who lives in Somerset County.

Hicks, 33, a Westmoreland County native and graduate of Southmoreland High School, was shot and killed Nov. 19, 2008, while serving a drug warrant at Korbe’s home. Christina Korbe’s husband, Robert, was the target of the warrant.

She pleaded guilty in 2011 to voluntary manslaughter and a firearms charge in the shooting death of Hicks, who was the first agent through the door.

Korbe, 53, was released Tuesday from the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia, according to the Bureau of Prisons. She was sentenced to 15 years and 10 months in prison, but was released Tuesday after receiving credit for good behavior.

Although Korbe apologized to the family in court, Carrabotta remains skeptical whether it was sincere.

“I was in court when she pleaded guilty and the judge asked her three times whether she knew under her plea agreement that she was relinquishing her right to appeals and she said she would abide by it. And she agreed and said she understood each time,” Carrabotta said.

However, Carrabotta noted that Korbe filed numerous appeals over the years, anguishing the Hicks family throughout her incarceration.

Just two years ago, Christina Korbe unsuccessfully tried to win her release claiming she contracted covid in March 2020, during the early days of the pandemic. Her attorneys claimed she was coughing, suffered from nausea and body aches and lost her sense of taste and smell for a month, but U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan sided with prosecutors’ arguments that there was no medical evidence she was ever diagnosed with covid.

In April 2020, she sought house arrest for the remainder of her sentence, but that request was also denied.

Carrabotta recalled during Korbe’s sentencing she wrote a letter to the judge countering Korbe’s claim that she fired the shot that killed Hicks because she was protecting her children. She read the letter prior to Korbe’s sentencing.

“I told the court and wrote in the letter that Christina wasn’t protecting her children that morning, Samuel was protecting her children and the lives of others,” Carrabotta said.

“As I said. People should remember Samuel as the hero,” she said.

“It is what it is. I think the statement made by the FBI Agents Association regarding her release says it perfectly,” she added.

Brian O’Hare, president of the FBI Agents Association, wrote a letter that urging the public never to forget Hicks.

“Despite Christina Korbe’s multiple attempts to earn early release from prison, the FBI Agents Association worked to ensure that she was required to serve her full sentence in the interest of justice and to honor the memory of FBI Special Agent Sam Hicks. While Korbe will now rejoin society and go back to her family, we will not forget that because of her actions, the Hicks family must live their lives without their loved one — a husband, father and son.

“It is important that the tragic facts surrounding the killing of Special Agent Hicks are not forgotten. On November 19, 2008, Christina Korbe opened fire on law enforcement officers who were executing a federal arrest warrant associated with a drug distribution ring, killing 33-year-old FBI Special Agent Sam Hicks. Agent Hicks, who had served with the FBI for 18 months and had previously served with the Baltimore (MD) Police Department for two years, was survived by his wife, Brooke, and then-two year old son Noah,” he wrote.

“(Tuesday), our thoughts are with the Hicks family and all Special Agents who risk their lives to protect our country. The loss of any Special Agent is devastating to families, communities, and our country,” O’Hare concluded.

Robert R. Korbe, 53, pleaded guilty in May 2011 to drug charges and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. In June 2020, he pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell synthetic cannabinoids at the federal prison in Loretto between 2017 and 2019 and was ordered to serve another four years in prison.

Robert Korbe is incarcerated at the federal medium security prison in Jessup, Ga., where he is scheduled to be released in October 2033, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

The Samuel S. Hicks Memorial Fund remains active, most recently noting its sponsorship in support of the Southmoreland marching band on the fund’s Facebook page.