Wagshol offered plea deal for assault, weapon-related charges
STAMFORD — Prosecutors gave a Norwalk man facing assault and weapon-related charges who allegedly showed an interest in mass shootings an ultimatum Wednesday: Either take the plea deal offered by the state by the end of the day or it would be withdrawn.
The ultimatum from Assistant State’s Attorney Michelle Manning to Brandon Wagshol and his lawyer, Darnell Crosland, came during a pretrial hearing at Stamford Superior Court.
Wagshol did not accept the offer in court and his attorney said Wednesday night that Wagshol did not have access to the court to the remainder of the day.
“It’s not for me to accept for him. That’s unfair and unjust,” Crosland said, adding that he will insist his client have an opportunity to accept the offer during his court appearance next month.
“We must demand a fair and transparent system of justice,” Crosland said. “He might have mental health issues, but his life matters.”
Wagshol faces charges of attempted first-degree assault, second-degree assault, second-degree assault on an elderly person and four counts of possession of a high-capacity magazine.
“There needs to be some kind of resolution here,” said Manning,
who did not go into details regarding the state’s offer. Records show it has been on the table since at least November of 2020.
After the hearing, Crosland said the state had offered Wagshol a three-year prison sentence in exchange for a guilty plea. The problem, Crosland said, is that his client has not been speaking to him.
After receiving the offer, Crosland asked the court to have Wagshol undergo a competency hearing because the attorney believed his client was “unable to understand the breadth of the offer that he is being asked to accept or reject,” records show.
That evaluation, however, concluded that Wagshol is competent to stand trial.
If Wagshol goes to trial, he faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of attempted first-degree assault, a Class B felony. All the other charges he faces are Class D felonies, which would each carry up to five years behind bars and up to a $5,000 fine, if convicted.
Wagshol, 23, has been held at Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown since he was arrested after he allegedly attacked his father with a 23-inch metal pipe in February 2020.
Before that, he had been on house arrest at his father’s Norwalk apartment since his release in August 2019 on $250,000 bond after he was arrested and charged with four counts of possession of illegal high-capacity gun magazines.
Police said Wagshol showed an interest in mass shootings on social media and had access to an arsenal of weapons and military gear belonging to his father.
Wagshol was first arrested in 2019 after the FBI received a tip from a family member who said he was trying to buy magazine clips, officials said. An investigation revealed that Wagshol had shown an interest in mass shootings as early as the sixth grade, according to a search warrant for his father’s apartment.
At the residence, police found a .40caliber handgun, a .22-caliber rifle, a rifle scope with a laser, four firearm optic sites, a firearm flashlight, body armor with a titanium plate, a full camouflage outfit, a ballistic helmet, tactical gloves, a camouflage bag, computers, and numerous .40-caliber, .22-caliber and .300caliber blackout rounds of ammunition, the search warrant said.
Police said the guns were registered to Wagshol’s father, who was not charged.
In his witness statement, Wagshol said he had no intention of committing a mass shooting and said he purchased the magazines in New Hampshire “to circumvent what I viewed as an unconstitutional restriction on the Second Amendment.” The high-capacity magazines are banned in Connecticut but not in New Hampshire.
Wagshol is next scheduled to appear in court for that case on April 14 in Stamford.