Man guilty of assault on lawyer

By KIPP HANLEY, Potomac News & Manassas Journal Messenger
Published: April 30, 2008

David Allen Hagelin was found guilty of assault and battery Tuesday and will be sentenced this morning at Prince William County Circuit Court.

Hagelin, 45, of Woodbridge, was charged with attempted capital murder for attacking his former attorney, Jennifer Zary, at the Prince William-Manassas Adult Detention Center on Nov. 6. When the incident occurred, Hagelin was in jail awaiting trial on rape, forcible sodomy, object penetration, aggravated malicious wounding and abduction with intent to defile charges from an Aug. 1 incident outside of Manassas Park.

Hagelin pleaded guilty to those charges in March and will be sentenced on May 22.

In his closing argument Tuesday, Hagelin's attorney, Robert A. Harris, pleaded with the jury to focus on the issue of premeditation. In order to be found guilty of attempted capital murder, among other things, the defendant has to have committed a willful, deliberate and premeditated act.

Harris believed his client's actions met the first two criteria but not the third.

"I think it was fair, I just didn't think that he planned to do that," Harris said. "He lost control and he acted on that."

Zary said she was shocked with the decision by the jury and believed had several guards at the prison not come to her aid within seconds of the attack, she likely would have died.

"They [the jury] didn't get to hear about the rape, sodomy, forcible penetration and malicious wound-ing charges against him," Zary said. "What he did to me was violent and this decision just feels inade-quate."

On Nov. 6, Hagelin was led down to one of three interview rooms set aside for prisoners and their legal representa-tives to meet with Zary. During her testimony, Zary said after an hour of meeting, the conversation became heated.

Zary said that when she told Hagelin they were done meeting, Hagelin stood up and said "we're not done." Zary said she yelled to try to get the attention of prison therapist Eleanor Heath, who was next door counseling another prisoner in one of the three soundproof booths.

That's when Hagelin said he was going to kill her, Zary said.

According to Zary's testimony, he then knocked her down and began to choke her and knock her head against the floor.

Officer Eric L. Waddington testified that he was doing his rounds outside the room and happened to see the expres-sion on her face through the window before the attack and said "she just looked alarmed." As he was reaching for his keys, Waddington said he saw Hagelin knock Zary over.

He exclaimed "Holy shit," which got the attention of others nearby.

Ultimately, three other officers testified that they helped Waddington subdue Hagelin before a fourth officer helped pull Zary out of the fray. Zary was led into the adjacent booth where Heath comforted the sobbing, shaking 32-year-old attorney.

During his testimony, Hagelin claimed he just lost his cool and was trying to prevent her from leaving. However, five witnesses testified that Hagelin resisted their attempts to free Zary from Hagelin's grip.

Pictures submitted as evidence showed Zary with a flushed face and a cut on her elbow. She also testified that she received several bruises on the back of her head from being slammed to the floor and that some of her hair was pulled out during the incident.

Zary said the lack of serious injury and the potential that the jury didn't understand the full meaning of pre-meditated might have hurt her case. The definition of premeditation in legal terms states that it doesn't take any certain length of time for an individual to commit a "premeditated act."

"It's something lawyers struggle with defining, and this is a jury with no special training," Zary said.

Zary said the attack last November has made her nervous each time she has stepped back into one of those meeting rooms. However, she said she won't stop meeting with her clients face-to-face because she feels like she needs to build trust with them.

Zary said she has had clients get angry with her in the past and the way she deals with that is the same way she tried to deal with Hagelin on Nov. 6.

"The way I control the situation is I leave," Zary said.

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-369-5738.