Wesley Hadsell, stepfather of AJ Hadsell, sentenced to 20 years in prison on ammo charge
(Nov. 15, 2016)Wesley Hadsell was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Tuesday for illegally having gun ammunition.
U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen said Hadsell has spent the past 26 years committing crime after crime, and he needs to go to prison to make people safer and get his mind right.
"This case isn't just about ammunition," Allen said.
The judge gave context to her sentence on the federal weapons charge Hadsell pleaded guilty to a year ago. Hadsell knew he was a felon in December 2013 and had just gotten off federal probation 10 months earlier. Nevertheless, he bought ammunition for a Winchester .40-caliber and for a Luger 9 mm from Bob?s Gun Shop, which sits on Granby Street within sight of the federal courthouse, according to court documents. He also confessed to going to a gun range in Chesapeake and firing some of it.
"That was so brazen," Allen said. "It's mind-boggling."
Detectives found about 80 rounds of ammunition in March 2015 while serving a search warrant inside Hadsell?s hotel room, court documents said.
The 38-year-old has a criminal history stretching back to age 12, including burglaries, a bank robbery and claims that he abducted and repeatedly raped his first wife during a two-week span years earlier, according to a court filing.
Allen, agreeing with prosecutors, labeled Hadsell an "armed career criminal." With that legal designation, which requires at least three violent felony convictions, he faced 15 years to life in prison. Without it, he would?ve gotten 10 at the most, and his lawyer was pushing the court to send him away for 2 1/2 years.
Prosecutors asked Allen for only the minimum 15 years, but the judge went higher, surprising Hadsell's lawyer.
"It definitely caught me off guard," Jason Dunn said after court. "I'm disappointed."
Hadsell will appeal the judge's decision to label him an "armed career criminal" in the next few days and take the issue to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, Dunn said.
It's an argument he's been making for months. Dunn said a burglary Hadsell committed nearly 20 years ago shouldn't count as a violent felony. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a similar issue in June, seemingly bolstering Hadsell and Dunn?s chances with Allen.
But federal prosecutor Andrew Bosse told the judge that the case before the Supreme Court dealt with Iowa's burglary law. Virginia's statute is different and should count as a violent felony, he said.
Judge Allen sided with Bosse, who declined to comment on the case or Allen?s sentence. She listed 12 crimes Hadsell has been convicted of, which forced him to spend eight years behind bars. Then she noted 16 other times he'd been arrested over the past two decades on charges such as arson, rape, obstructing justice and maiming or killing an animal. She noted he wasn?t convicted in those because charges were dropped, dismissed or he was found not guilty.
"My goodness," the judge said. "You're only 38 years old."
Hadsell pleaded guilty to the ammunition charge in November 2015 and faces a state charge related to heroin found in his hotel room the following September. Police found it because Hadsell suggested his sister find and get rid of it during a jail phone call. His attorney argued the drugs were found months later in a police search after roughly 20 people had rented the room.
Hadsell's 18-year-old stepdaughter, Anjelica "AJ" Hadsell, was found dead from acute heroin poisoning near an abandoned home in Southampton County in April 2015. The manner of death -- accident, suicide or homicide -- is undetermined.
Hadsell still faces rape and kidnapping charges in Ohio. The case in Delaware County relates to a 2005 incident, according to court documents released in July. Hadsell has been indicted on two counts of rape, one count of kidnapping and one count of felonious assault.
The crimes happened on Aug. 26, 2005, officials said in court documents. That's the same day Hadsell's then-wife, Michelle Hadsell, was reported missing by her father. The new indictment names the victim as "Jane Doe" and does not specify whether she was Hadsell's wife, but the timeline fits the one given by authorities after Michelle Hadsell went missing.
Allen said she looks at defendant's childhood for possible explanations for their crimes. But she didn't find any with Hadsell. His father was a nuclear technician who traveled a lot for work. He died in 2010. His mother, who sat crying in the courtroom, is a retired nurse and homemaker, who must?ve been devastated as she watched her son cycle in and out of prison, Allen said.
Meanwhile, his siblings have grown up to be productive, law-abiding people.
"There's no doubt you had a fine family," Allen said.
She encouraged him to hew back to the morals his parents instilled in him when he was younger. Stop doing drugs. Stop lying. Stop hurting people. Get help with your drug addictions and mental health problems.
"You have been on a roller coaster ride since you were 12," she told him. "You have to be tired."
The judge told him he wasn?t born to wear a jumpsuit and shackles. He wasn?t born to appear regularly in the newspaper and TV news. She encouraged him to go to prison, become a model prisoner and come out.
But, she added: "There's no question in the Court's mind that we're safer as a society if you're not here for a while."
Then she explained what she meant by "a while" and sentenced him to 20 years.
Originally Posted by bermstalker
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