February 12, 2009

(AP) - The state medical examiner's office says a 5-year-old Virginia Beach boy allegedly killed by his father was decapitated.

The office said Wednesday that Joshua Hagerman died of decapitation.

Virginia Beach police spokeswoman Margie Long declined to describe the weapon.

The boy's father, 33-year-old Joseph Hagerman III, Hagerman, 33,
was arraigned Wednesday on murder and felonious assault charges.

Hagerman is charged with killing his son at the family's residence Tuesday. He also is accused of attacking his wife as she attempted to protect the boy. She survived the attack.

Hagerman told WTKR-TV in a jailhouse interview that he killed his son to save the boy from the anti-Christ.

"I wanted to set him free," said Hagerman "If I didn't do something the anti-Christ would have took his soul. I love my son and I took his life."

The defense has requested a competency evaluation of Hagerman.

Hagerman, a night security guard for Virginia Beach Public Schools, appeared in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court via closed-circuit TV from jail. He was charged with first degree murder and felonious assault and ordered held without bond.

The public defender’s office was appointed to defend Hagerman, who later obtained his own counsel. A bond hearing Thursday was postponed.

Hagerman served in the Marine Corps as an administrative clerk from June 1994 to November 1997, achieving the rank of corporal and leaving when his contract was up, according to the Marine Corps.