Decade-old rape trial moved to 2018

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A new trial has been scheduled for a former Delaware County man charged with a 12-year-old rape offense.

Wesley Paul Hadsell, 39, had been scheduled to stand trial on Nov. 14 to face two counts of rape, which are first-degree felonies; a charge of kidnapping, also a first-degree felony; and a charge of felonious assault, a second-degree felony, but on Nov. 6 Hadsell’s attorney asked for a continuance.

Hadsell’s defense attorney, Brian G. Jones, asked that Delaware County Common Pleas Judge Everett Krueger reschedule the trial because he has hired a private investigator to locate witnesses in the case who have traveled out of the area.

Krueger granted the motion scheduled a new trial for Jan. 23 and scheduled a oral hearing to discuss evidence in the case for Jan. 22 at 2 p.m.

Prosecutors said last year that this case is a re-indictment of a case from 2005. Court documents from the 2005 case allege that on Aug. 21, 2005, Hadsell restrained, raped, and physically harmed a woman.

Hadsell was originally indicted on the charges in 2005, but that case was dismissed after Hadsell was indicted in U.S. District Court for a bank robbery charge. He was later sentenced to 54 months in jail for a bank robbery in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

This is not the first delay in Hadsell’s case. It was delayed from February to March, then to May, then to July, then to Aug. 8 and finally to Nov. 14 before this most recent delay.

Hadsell is being held in the Delaware County Jail awaiting his trial. He has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Virginia on federal ammunition charges.

According to Hampton Roads-based newspaper The Virginian-Pilot, Hadsell pleaded guilty to a charge of illegal purchase of ammunition in November 2015. The Virginian-Pilot reports that despite being a convicted felon, Hadsell purchased Winchester .40-caliber and Luger 9mm ammunition in December 2013.

The Virginian-Pilot also reports that Hadsell confessed to going to a gun range in Chesapeake, Virginia and firing some of the ammo.

News outlets in Virginia report that Hadsell had been a suspect in the disappearance of his stepdaughter, Anjelica “AJ” Hadsell.

The Virginian-Pilot reports “AJ” Hadsell, was found dead in April 2015 near an abandoned home in Southampton County, Virginia. The cause was acute heroin poisoning, but the manner — whether it was accidental, suicide, or homicide — is unknown, the newspaper reported.

Hadsell
http://www.delgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2017/11/web1_hadsell-mug-new.jpgHadsell Courtesy photo | Delaware County Jail

By Glenn Battishill

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Contact Glenn Battishill at 740-413-0903 or on Twitter @BattishillDG.

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