District Woman Pleads Guilty to Voluntary Manslaughter

            WASHINGTON – Loretta Hall, also known as Loretta Beckwith, 48, of Washington, D.C., pled guilty today to a charge of voluntary manslaughter for fatally stabbing her longtime boyfriend, Acting U.S. Attorney Vincent H. Cohen, Jr. announced.

            Hall pled guilty in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. She is to be sentenced on Jan. 8, 2016, by the Honorable Rhonda Reid Winston.

            According to the government’s evidence, Hall lived with her boyfriend, Kenneth Fogle, 54, and the two had been romantically involved for many years. On June 13, 2015, at approximately 5 p.m., Hall was verbally arguing with Mr. Fogle in the hallway outside the basement apartment that they shared in the 3200 block of 23^rd Street SE. During the argument, Hall used a large kitchen knife to stab Mr. Fogle multiple times, including one stab wound to the left chest area that punctured Mr. Fogle’s aorta and caused his death.  Hall then entered the shared apartment and hid the knife in a cat litter box.

            Within minutes, witnesses discovered Mr. Fogle, slumped unconscious on the steps down to the basement level of the apartment building in a pool of blood.  Hall then fled past Mr. Fogle and out of the building. A witness called 911 and an ambulance transported Mr. Fogle to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead that same day.

            Hall was arrested on June 19, 2015 and has been in custody ever since. She had been on supervised release for a 2009 conviction for assault with significant bodily injury, and could face additional prison time for violating her release conditions.  During her plea today, Hall acknowledged that she was not acting in reasonable self-defense when she stabbed Mr. Fogle.

            In announcing the guilty plea, Acting U.S. Attorney Cohen commended the work of the detectives of the Criminal Investigations Division Homicide Branch, crime scene officers, and the Seventh Police District of the Metropolitan Police Department.  He also acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Victim/Witness Advocate Jennifer Clark; Lead Paralegal Specialist Kwasi Fields; Investigative Analyst Zachary McMenamin, and Interns Gillian Tishuk and Rebecca Roher. Finally, he expressed appreciation for the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Bruckmann, who investigated and prosecuted the case.