VIRGINIA BEACH
Christopher Hagans, charged in the fatal shooting of a woman outside a Hilltop shopping center in November 2006, was ordered to serve 58 years in prison Monday for a violent carjacking a month before the shooting.
Hagans, 20, declined to make a statement to the court and expressed no emotion when his punishment was delivered during a five -minute hearing in Circuit Court.
In March, he was convicted of abduction, robbery, carjacking and three counts of use of a firearm for the incident that began at Pembroke Mall, and "was as brutal of a carjacking you can have," said Scott Lang, a deputy commonwealth's attorney.
Hagans was hiding in the back of a Mercedes SUV Oct. 14, 2006, when the victim, Ruth Dieffenbach, placed her shopping bags in the hatch and got into the driver's seat. Hagans reached between the seats and pulled her onto the back floorboard, where he choked the woman, who temporarily blacked out, prosecutors said.
When Dieffenbach regained consciousness, Hagans had wrapped her arms in masking tape, pinning her to the floor behind the seat. She testified during the trial that her attacker drove her to an empty lot near The Gallery at Military Circle mall, where he pulled the tape from her forearms, ripping her flesh. He then stole $1,200 she had hidden in her billfold, an engagement ring and a wedding band.
The ordeal ended 45 minutes later near Norfolk State University. Hagans, according to testimony, got out of the SUV, waved and walked away.
Hagans has yet to stand trial in the killing of Elisabeth Kelly Reilly, 25, who was shot Nov. 11, 2006, in the Hilltop North Shopping Center parking lot.
Duane Bourne, (757) 222-5150, duane.bourne@pilotonline.com
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