Prosecutors in Alexandria will decide whether to retry Pankaj Bhasin in the slaying of a well-known Old Town store worker.
By Rachel Weiner Rachel Weiner Local reporter covering federal court in Alexandria, Va. and local court in Arlington and Alexandria. Email Bio Follow March 27 A mentally ill man believed he was fighting a werewolf to avoid a collision between the Earth and the moon when he killed a stranger in Old Town Alexandria, Va., last July, according to trial testimony.
An Alexandria Circuit Court judge on Wednesday declared a mistrial in the case after a jury deadlocked, unable to decide whether Bhasin was guilty of murder or not guilty by reason of insanity. Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter said his office will decide next week whether to put Bhasin on trial again.
Pankaj Bhasin, 34, is accused of killing another man last year in what his attorneys and doctors said was a psychotic episode. A few hours before the attack, after driving all night from New Jersey, Bhasin showed up at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown carrying a can of gasoline and demanding a room. When he was asked to leave, he told a hotel worker, “90 percent, if I die, everybody dies. . . . There’s still time to save everyone.
Bhasin left the building covered in blood, naked from the waist down, and entered the back seat of a Mercedes-Benz car parked in front of the store. The woman and her daughter sitting in the front of the car fled, and Bhasin moved to the driver’s seat, reclining and closing his eyes. He stayed there until police arrived.
Lord asked why Bhasin’s memory of the attack was fuzzy when his recollection of the events leading up to his arrival at the store was fairly clear. Bhasin was a successful, gregarious and kind person up until last spring, friends and family members testified. He was living in Washington and working as a risk analyst before leaving his job to travel the world; he returned home to New Jersey about eight months before the attack to help take care of his sick father.
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