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On June 30, 1994, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Michael David Clagett and his girlfriend Denise Rayne Holsinger entered a local bar where Holsinger formerly worked as a waitress. The couple robbed and murdered four people, consisting of the bar's owner Lam Van Son, the bar's two employees Wendell G. Parish Jr. and Karen Sue Rounds, and bar patron Abdelaziz Gren. Clagett and Holsinger were both arrested and charged with multiple counts of capital murder, and for these charges, Holsinger was sentenced to life in prison while Clagett was sentenced to death. Six years after committing the slayings, Clagett was executed by the electric chair on July 6, 2000.

Murders

Slayings and motive

On June 30, 1994, a couple entered a local bar at Virginia Beach, Virginia, where they shot and killed four people during an armed robbery.

Prior to the slayings, Denise Rayne Holsinger, one of the robbers responsible, was formerly employed as a waitress at the bar in question. Holsinger was suspected of stealing money from the bar and as a result, Holsinger was fired from her job. Out of revenge, Holsinger met up with her boyfriend, Michael David Clagett, and while having sex with Clagett and taking drugs together, she asked Clagett to help her get back at the bar's staff members. Together, they hatched a plan to rob the bar and shoot the people inside it. Clagett himself was a regular patron of the bar and was regarded as longtime friends by the bar owner and the patrons and employees.

On the night of June 30, 1994, the date of Clagett's 33rd birthday, the couple carried out their plan, barging into the bar while armed with a gun. On gunpoint, Clagett held the bar's owner, the bar's two employees and a male patron hostage while Holsinger went to search for any money in the cash register. Later, Clagett brandished the gun and shot each of the four hostages once in their heads.

After the shootings, Holsinger and Clagett left the bar with approximately $400 taken from the cash register. The four victims — 42-year-old bar owner Lam Van Son, 31-year-old newly hired waitress Karen Sue Rounds, 32-year-old cook Wendel G. "J.R." Parrish Jr., and 35-year-old patron Abdelaziz "Aziz" Gren — died as a result of the shooting. Son's five-year-old child, a boy, was at the back of the shop when the shootings happened, and hence, he was not injured or killed.

Shortly after the murders, Richard T. Reed, a regular patron, arrived at around midnight, and noticed that the doors were locked even though the bar was supposed to close at 2am. Reed also heard music playing from inside the bar. Subsequently, Reed discovered the bodies of the four deceased victims after going in through the unlocked backdoor of the bar.

Victims

The owner, Lam Van Son (Vietnamese: Sơn Lâm Vân; 1952 – June 30, 1994), was a Vietnamese immigrant who fought for the special forces of the South Vietnamese military during the Vietnam War, but after the fall of Saigon in 1975, Son was detained at a re-education camp at the end of the war, before he fled to Thailand by boat and immigrated to the U.S. Son first met his wife Lanna Le Son in Lynchburg, Virginia; Lanna herself was also a Vietnamese refugee who fled from South Vietnam two days before the end of the war. The couple married in 1988 after five years of engagement, and together, they had one son. Son was the owner of three taverns, including the one where his death occurred.

Like Lam, Abdelaziz Gren (1959 – June 30, 1994), who was born in Morocco, immigrated to the U.S. for a better life, and first settled in Virginia Beach since 1982. Gren, who completed his college education in Morocco, spoke fluent Arabic, French and English and planned to build his own company that mainly took charge of attracting Moroccan and French businesses to the U.S. Gren, however, died before the U.S. government approved papers for him to begin his business venture.

Karen Rounds (June 3, 1963 – June 30, 1994) formerly worked as a nurse before she was hired as a waitress, replacing Holsinger after she was laid off from her job. Rounds, who started working a the bar a month before her murder, returned to college and planned to pursue a new career related to computers, after she resigned from her previous job as a nurse at a Maryview Medical Center clinic in Churchland. Rounds originally resided in Pennsylvania (where she worked as a prison nurse) before she moved to Virginia due to her husband, a member of the navy, transferred to Virginia itself.

Wendel Parrish Jr. (August 7, 1961 – June 30, 1994) was the cook and handyman working at the bar when the murder spree occurred. Parrish was born in Prince George, Virginia, and resided in Hampton Roads as a child. He graduated from Bayside High School in 1981. Apart from this, there was little information relating to Parrish's life and background before he was murdered.

Arrests of Clagett and Holsinger

A day after the bar murders, Michael Clagett was arrested for public intoxication, after he was caught sleeping in the bushes outside an apartment building.

The couple were charged with murder.

Trials of Clagett and Holsinger

Michael David Clagett

Clagett's background

Michael Clagett

Clagett's trial

On October 23, 1995, Clagett was officially sentenced to death by Judge Edward W. Hanson Jr. during a formal court hearing.

Denise Rayne Holsinger

Holsinger's background

Denise Holsinger

Holsinger's trial

On October 19, 1995, Holsinger was sentenced to five consecutive life terms plus 23 years.

Execution of Clagett

Six years after the murders,

On July 6, 2000, 39-year-old Michael David Clagett was put to death by the electric chair.

See also

• Capital punishment in Virginia
• List of people executed in Virginia
• List of people executed in the United States in 2000

References