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Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Leesburg man will serve eight years for brutal attack on wife
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Date: May 08, 2011 11:06PM
Leesburg man will serve eight years for brutal attack on wife Thursday, May. 5 by Crystal Owens | 6 comments | Email this story
Mark Haldeman
http://www.loudountimes.com/index.php/news/article/leesburg_man_will_serve_eight_years_for_brutal_attack_on_wife/
A Leesburg man who pleaded guilty in a brutal stabbing attack on his wife will spend eight years in prison, a judge ruled Thursday.
Mark Haldeman, 40, was sentenced by Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge Burke McCahill to 20 years in prison, five years probation and a $2,500 fine.
McCahill suspended 12 years of Haldeman’s prison sentence.
A jury found Haldeman guilty of a stabbing attack on his wife Irene in April 2010 and recommended a sentence of 25 years behind bars. However, on Aug. 16 a mistrial was declared in the case after the judge determined the jury was given improper instruction.
In his arguments for the mistrial, Haldeman’s attorney, Fairfax-based Jonathan Shapiro, said the jury was given an instruction reading, “words alone are never sufficient for heat of passion” that was not a correct statement of the law.
Rather than facing the jury a second time, Haldemen on March 3 pleaded to aggravated malicious wounding and abduction.
Shapiro could not be reached for comment on Haldeman’s sentencing.
Authorities said Haldeman attacked his wife in July 2009 after he discovered she was having an affair with another man.
The husband, authorities said, stabbed his wife in the back six times and slit her throat.
Irene Haldeman, who now goes by Irene Sinclair, survived the attack.
A voice-activated recorder set up by Haldeman in his office when he confronted his wife about the affair recorded the entire attack which later was replayed for a jury.
Throughout the recording, Sinclair screamed and begged for her husband to stop.
He eventually called 911.
Mark Haldeman
http://www.loudountimes.com/index.php/news/article/leesburg_man_will_serve_eight_years_for_brutal_attack_on_wife/
A Leesburg man who pleaded guilty in a brutal stabbing attack on his wife will spend eight years in prison, a judge ruled Thursday.
Mark Haldeman, 40, was sentenced by Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge Burke McCahill to 20 years in prison, five years probation and a $2,500 fine.
McCahill suspended 12 years of Haldeman’s prison sentence.
A jury found Haldeman guilty of a stabbing attack on his wife Irene in April 2010 and recommended a sentence of 25 years behind bars. However, on Aug. 16 a mistrial was declared in the case after the judge determined the jury was given improper instruction.
In his arguments for the mistrial, Haldeman’s attorney, Fairfax-based Jonathan Shapiro, said the jury was given an instruction reading, “words alone are never sufficient for heat of passion” that was not a correct statement of the law.
Rather than facing the jury a second time, Haldemen on March 3 pleaded to aggravated malicious wounding and abduction.
Shapiro could not be reached for comment on Haldeman’s sentencing.
Authorities said Haldeman attacked his wife in July 2009 after he discovered she was having an affair with another man.
The husband, authorities said, stabbed his wife in the back six times and slit her throat.
Irene Haldeman, who now goes by Irene Sinclair, survived the attack.
A voice-activated recorder set up by Haldeman in his office when he confronted his wife about the affair recorded the entire attack which later was replayed for a jury.
Throughout the recording, Sinclair screamed and begged for her husband to stop.
He eventually called 911.