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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 14, 1995                   TAG: 9507140057
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Medium

JURY: 5 DEATH SENTENCES IN VA. BEACH BAR KILLINGS

A jury set five death sentences Thursday for a man convicted of killing a bar owner he described as ``my buddy'' and three other people at the neighborhood hangout last summer.

Michael D. Clagett, 33, showed no reaction as the sentences - one for each of the victims of the robbery-murder and one for the multiple killings - were read.

Clagett's attorney, public defender Peter Legler, held his head in his hands. A few family members of the victims wept quietly.

``It's not going to happen soon enough for me,'' Kevin Rounds, husband of victim Karen Sue Rounds, said of Clagett's sentence.

``To me, it will never end,'' said Lanna Son, wife of slain bar owner LamVan Son.

The jury of six men and six women convicted Clagett on Tuesday on capital murder, robbery and firearms charges in the June 30, 1994, slayings of Son, Karen Rounds, Wendel G. Parrish Jr. and Abdelaziz Gren at Son's Witchduck Inn, a bar next to a blue-collar neighborhood where Clagett lived.

Karen Rounds was a waitress at the bar. Parrish worked there as a handyman. Gren was a patron.

Lanna Son said Clagett often was at the bar. She said her 4-year-old son, who was found sleeping unharmed in the back office when the bodies were discovered, knew Clagett as ``Uncle Mike.''

She also said Clagett came by the bar the day after the slayings to console her. That night, he was arrested.

Prosecutors said Clagett and his girlfriend, Denise R. Holsinger, planned to rob the Witchduck Inn after Holsinger was fired by Son from her job as a waitress.

Holsinger, 30, pleaded guilty May 1 to first-degree murder and robbery charges. She could get five life prison terms at her sentencing Wednesday.

Clagett admitted in police, TV and newspaper interviews that he killed the victims. In his confession to police, he repeatedly called Son ``my buddy'' and told Detective Paul Yoakam, ``Fry me.''

Clagett considered pleading guilty earlier this year and, according to Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Humphreys, almost changed his innocent plea just before testimony opened July 5.

Legler called no defense witnesses at the trial.

Circuit Judge Edward W. Hanson set Sept. 18 for imposing the sentences. The jury gave 20 years on the robbery charge and 23 years on the firearms charges.

by CNB