Michael Clagett was executed by the State of Virginia for four murders
According to court documents Michael Clagett girlfriend was fired from her job at the Witchduck Inn in Virginia Beach. The pair decided to rob the inn. During the robbery four people would be shot and killed: Lam Van Son (owner), Karen Sue Rounds (waitress), Wendel G. “J.R.” Parrish Jr. (cook), and Abdelaziz Gren (patron)
Michael Clagett would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Michael Clagett would be executed by way of the electric chair on July 6 2000
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When Was Michael Clagett Executed
Michael Clagett was executed on July 6 2000
Michael Clagett Case
A Virginia jury convicted Michael D. Clagett of five counts of capital murder. The Virginia Supreme Court outlined the facts of the discovery of the crime as follows:
Richard T. Reed, a regular patron, arrived at the Witchduck Inn (the Inn), a tavern and restaurant in Virginia Beach, about midnight on June 30, 1994. He discovered the bodies of Lam Van Son, the Inn’s owner, Inn employees Wendell Parish and Karen Sue Rounds, and Abdelaziz Gren, an Inn patron. Each victim had been shot once in the head. The Inn’s cash register was open and empty. Based upon information supplied by Denise Holsinger, Clagett’s girlfriend, Clagett was identified as a suspect in the killings.
On July 1, 1994, Police Officer Donna Malcolm, responding to a citizen call reporting that a man was “sleeping in the bushes,” arrested Clagett for public intoxication, he was taken into custody, and he was read his Miranda rights. At the police station, Clagett was turned over to Detective Paul C. Yoakum. Clagett initially denied that he had been at the Witchduck Inn on the night of the killings. Detective Yoakum then, in a ruse, told Clagett that the Inn had security cameras and that the police could place him at the Inn on the night of the murders. Clagett then confessed to the killings: “You can fry me. Thats (sic) what I’m going to ask for when we go to court. Fry me, I’m not gonna live. I don’t want the tax payers supporting me. I did it. Yeah I did it. I did it all. All by my f* * ing self. Let that little c * * go free. I did it all. I did it all buddy. And the worst thing was . . . Lam[, the bar owner,] was my buddy . . . . “
Clagett then explained to Detective Yoakum that he planned the robbery at the request of Holsinger, and that while Holsinger took $400 from the cash register, he used a .357 Magnum to murder the four individuals. He also described how and where he shot each of the victims, explaining that he shot one victim in the forehead and the other three victims in the back of the head. The same day that Clagett confessed to Detective Yoakum and while he was still in police custody, he confessed a second time to the killings, but this time to a television news reporter. A reporter from WTKR Channel 3 asked Clagett “Are you guilty of these charges?” And Clagett replied: “Yes. I shot every one of them.”
A grand jury returned two indictments against Clagett on October 3, 1994: one charging him with robbery, use of a firearm in the commission of a robbery, four counts of capital murder during the commission of a robbery, and four counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a murder; and the other indictment charging him with one count of multiple homicide capital murder for killing all four individuals as part of the same act or transaction.
During the jury trial which spanned ten days, the prosecution presented, in addition to the two videotaped confessions, the following evidence. Clagett and Holsinger were seen with a gun on the day of the killings. Police found a .357 Magnum in Clagett’s home on the morning of July 2, but a crime laboratory analyst was unable to match bullet fragments from the Inn with the gun found in Clagett’s home. A medical examiner testified that only one victim was not shot in the back of the head. After the killings, the cash register at the Inn was empty. And when Clagett was arrested, he had $137.00 on his person. Holsinger did not testify at trial.
The jury convicted Clagett of all charges in the two indictments. A sentencing hearing was held on July 12 and 13, 1995. During the hearing, the jury heard evidence that Clagett had a history of brutal domestic violence against his former wife and of drug use, but that he showed great remorse for the murders during his confession to Detective Yoakum.
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