Plea Deal in Death of NW Woman
By Henri
E. Cauvin, The Washington
Post
September
10, 2005
A
man who maintains he had nothing to do with a 36-year-old woman's brutal
killing four years ago was convicted yesterday of manslaughter as part of an
unusual plea deal that left just about everyone in the courtroom unsatisfied.
Turning
to face the victim's angry, tearful family in D.C. Superior Court, William B. Hall said that he did not
take the life of Kari Jacobsen, an
on-again, off-again girlfriend. "I wish I could give them closure,"
Hall, 50, said, "but I did not kill Kari."
He
acknowledged that the evidence -- some of it straight from his own mouth --
could have led others to believe that he was Jacobsen's killer. In April, he
entered what is known as an Alford plea. Under such pleas, defendants do not
explicitly admit to crimes but agree that prosecutors have enough evidence to
convict them. Alford pleas are recorded as guilty pleas and have the same legal
effect.
Judge
Robert I. Richter could either accept or reject the plea agreement that Hall
struck with prosecutors -- including the sentence that he would receive.
For
Hall, the agreed-upon sentence was 11 years, far less than he would have served
had he been convicted of the indicted charge, first-degree murder.
Jacobsen,
who grew up in Bethesda and lived in the 1800 block of 13th Street NW, was
found dead in her bathtub in early July 2001. She had been choked, and her
throat had been slashed. Prosecutors said Hall and Jacobsen had a
"volatile" relationship. They argued often and fought many times,
witnesses told investigators.
Hall
was arrested in April 2003 and indicted later that year on a charge of
first-degree murder.
But
the government's case rested heavily on circumstantial evidence, and a trial appeared
to be a risky proposition for prosecutors. With such a serious charge and the
outcome so uncertain, the defense evidently wasn't willing to take a chance,
either.
The
two sides began working toward a plea agreement, but as it took shape, around a
charge of voluntary manslaughter while armed, the Jacobsen family objected.
Although
it is not unusual for families to be disappointed with the terms of a plea, the
Jacobsen family was particularly outspoken.
Coming before the judge yesterday, one relative after
another urged that the plea be rejected. A photograph of Jacobsen was mounted
on an easel in the well of the courtroom. Kari, the family told Richter, was a
wonderful person, and her killing was a brutal act that demanded far more than
the 11-year proposed sentence.
"We
know the plea is not right," said Terri Jacobsen, one of the victim's
sisters. "It's not just. It's not right."
The
lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas A. DiBiase,
said the government was not satisfied with the outcome, either. But, he said,
"we have to be guided by the evidence, by the
facts."
Richter
said that he agreed with many of the sentiments of the Jacobsen family but that
he believed the plea, unsatisfactory as it was to him, was acceptable. Richter
said he would not have accepted the plea if he had serious questions about
Hall's guilt.