
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 3, 1995                   TAG: 9505030028
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Medium

WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY IN SLAYINGS OF 4 AT BAR

A waitress who had been fired from her job at a blue-collar bar pleaded guilty Monday to murder in the shooting deaths of the bar's owner, two employees and a patron.

Denise R. Holsinger, 30, had told an acquaintance shortly after she was fired last June that her former boss was ``going to get his,'' Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Humphreys said.

But on the day after the June 30 slayings of bar owner Lamvan Son and three others at the Witchduck Inn, Holsinger told a crowd of regulars who had gathered at another bar to mourn the victims, ``First dibs on the son of a b---- that did that,'' Humphreys said.

Holsinger and her boyfriend, Michael Clagett, were arrested later that evening.

Holsinger pleaded guilty to four first-degree murder charges, one charge of robbery and five charges of using a firearm in what has been described as one of the worst multiple homicides in city history.

When she is sentenced July 19, she faces up to five terms of life in prison plus 23 years, Circuit Judge John K. Moore told her.

Humphreys said the guilty pleas were made without a plea agreement.

Holsinger bowed her head and covered her eyes as Humphreys, introducing photographs of the victims into evidence, described the entry wounds made by gunshots fired into the head of each of those killed.

Relatives of the victims wept quietly, but there were no outbursts.

``This is why I don't want to go trial,'' Holsinger told Moore after the prosecutor finished his summary of evidence. ``This is why I'm pleading guilty, your honor.''

Holsinger has contended that she and Clagett planned to rob the bar, but she denied any role in the murders.

Clagett has admitted shooting the victims but said Holsinger urged him on, even telling him to shoot the bar owner's 4-year-old son, who was later found unharmed and sleeping in a back room.

Clagett, 33, faces trial June 26 on capital murder charges, and his attorneys have asked that the trial be moved or a jury be brought in from elsewhere. If convicted, he could receive a death sentence.

Keywords:
FATALITY

Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.

by CNB