New details emerge in stabbing of managing partner and his wife
Andrew Schmuhl (Fairfax County Police)
A second lawyer was denied bond on Tuesday in an alleged stabbing attack and “torture session” that sent a law firm managing partner and his wife to the hospital with life threatening injuries.
Bond was denied for Andrew Schmuhl, 31, of Springfield, Virginia, in the alleged Nov. 9 attack on Leo Fisher and his wife, Susan Duncan, at their McLean, Virginia home, report the Washington Post and WUSA9. Susan Duncan was identified in previous reports as Sue Fisher.
New details of the alleged crime surfaced during the bond hearing on Tuesday, including information about how Susan Duncan was able to sound an alarm, the Washington Post says.
Leo Fisher is managing partner of the Arlington, Virginia, law firm Bean Kinney & Korman, where Andrew Schmuhl’s wife, 30-year-old Alecia Schmuhl, had worked for more than a year and a half before her firing in late October. Andrew and Alecia Schmuhl are both charged with malicious wounding and abduction by force. Alecia Schmuhl maintains she waited outside during the attack and wasn’t aware of her husband’s plans.
A lawyer for Andrew Schmuhl told the court on Tuesday that his client should be released to the care of his parents because he had suffered a spinal cord injury in 2012 that limited his mobility, according to the Washington Post account. A prosecutor countered with a photo of Schmuhl playing in a kickball tournament in August.
Prosecutor Casey Lingan of Fairfax County also remarked that Andrew Schmuhl “had no trouble making his way around” the night of the crime. Prosecutors and police have alleged Andrew Schmuhl used a stun gun on Fisher, fired a shot at Duncan, and restrained the couple with zip ties. He was wearing only a diaper when he was arrested with his wife in their car after she allegedly led police on a four-mile car chase.
At the hearing on Tuesday, prosecutors revealed allegations for the first time that Andrew Schmuhl ordered Fisher to log onto his computer to get personal information about other lawyers at the law firm, the Post says. While Fisher was on the computer, Duncan moved from the bathroom where she was being held. Schmuhl allegedly fired a shot at Duncan, who played dead and hit a fire alarm when Andrew Schmuhl looked away. Both Schmuhls fled after the alarm sounded, according to authorities.
The Schmuhls both attended Valparaiso University Law School. Andrew Schmuhl is a former judge advocate in the Army who has been out of work since he suffered a back injury in the service.
Alecia Schmuhl’s lawyer told a judge that Andrew Schmuhl was a former military intelligence officer who was manipulative and controlling. Alecia Schmuhl was the couple’s only source of income, according to her lawyer.
