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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 7, 1995                   TAG: 9507070073
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Short

PROSECUTOR: SUSPECT FELT NO RAGE

A man on trial for capital murder in the slayings of four people in a neighborhood bar told police he wasn't angry as he shot the victims in the head, a prosecutor said Thursday.

``There was no rage to it,'' Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Mike Moore said Michael D. Clagett told investigators.

Clagett, 33, and his girlfriend, Denise R. Holsinger, 30, planned to rob the bar on an end-of-the-month military payday and talked of becoming another Bonnie and Clyde, Moore told the panel of 14 jurors and alternates as Clagett's trial opened.

But defense attorneys said there is doubt as to the extent of Clagett's role in the slayings, and Holsinger may be among the defense witnesses.

Clagett faces charges of capital murder and robbery in the June 30, 1994, deaths of the owner, two employees and a patron at the Witchduck Inn, a blue-collar bar where Clagett was a regular customer.

Clagett and Holsinger were arrested the day after the murders. Clagett confessed to police and repeated the admission in newspaper and TV interviews from the Virginia Beach jail.

Holsinger, who shortly before the killings had been fired from her job as a waitress at the bar, pleaded guilty May 1 to first-degree murder. At her sentencing July 19, she could get up to five life terms in prison.

Clagett could get the death penalty if convicted.

Earlier this year, Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Humphreys said Clagett had indicated he intended to plead guilty rather than go through a trial. But when Clagett came into court June 26, he pleaded innocent.

by CNB