WITNESS: SON CONFESSED ; MANAGER OF BABY DOLLS TESTIFIES MAN SPOKE OF SLAYING [Topeka Capital Journal (KS)]

The manager of a south Topeka strip club testified Thursday that the son of a woman stabbed and strangled to death in September 2011 admitted killing his mother.

Thursday's second day of the preliminary hearing of Jason Hachmeister, charged with the brutal slaying of Sheila R. Hachmeister, 58, included the testimony of Katherine Shaw, manager of Baby Dolls club.

Other witnesses testified that Jason Hachmeister, 37, is a beneficiary of a $125,000 life insurance policy tied to his mother's death.

The fact the victim's dog, Harley, was penned up in the victim's home when her body was found showed premeditation, a prosecutor argued when seeking the bindover of Jason Hachmeister.

In binding over Hachmeister for trial, Shawnee County District Judge Richard Anderson said "this was a very vicious murder."

Following a second full day of preliminary hearing, the defendant was bound over on a charge of premeditated first-degree murder. Hachmeister is to be tried starting Dec. 3.

Shaw, the club manager, told of a conversation she had with Hachmeister in her club in September 2011. When Hachmeister arrived, Shaw testified, he was sober and told her that he wanted to kill his mother.

But after Hachmeister continued to drink and became "tipsy," Shaw said, he grabbed her arm and said: "I really did kill my mother. I hacked that (expletive) bitch up."

"Oh, good for you," Shaw said she replied, adding that she hears many strange stories from customers, some saying they would like to kill relatives, and Shaw wasn't inclined to believe Hachmeister.

Shaw also said Hachmeister told her he had to replace the carpets in the house where he and his mother had lived because she "bled all over them."

Aaron Hachmeister, the defendant's brother, said he was at his job as a Lawrence police officer on Sept. 10, 2011, when he received a text message at 5:45 p.m. about something going on at his mother's home at 3520 S.W. Belle Ave.

Topeka police told him there had been a medical emergency at her home. Jason Hachmeister lived in the basement at his mother's home.

When Aaron Hachmeister next saw his brother, Jason Hachmeister had bruises on his shins, cuts on his hands, scrapes on his knees and rope or rug burns on his knuckles.

"I saw some injuries to his knees and hands," Aaron Hachmeister said, and based on his law enforcement experience, "that I thought were kind of different."

Aaron Hachmeister said his brother told him he had skinned his knees and broken his glasses while falling going upstairs and injured his hands while lifting weights.

The Hachmeister brothers were the equal beneficiaries of a $250,000 life insurance policy, which would pay each $125,000. Aaron Hachmeister, administrator of his mother's estate, instructed the insurance company to not pay any money to Jason Hachmeister since he was a suspect in the slaying of their mother.

"He got very angry with me," Aaron Hachmeister said. "He threatened to sue me." On questioning by the defendant's attorney, Mark Bennett, Aaron Hachmeister acknowledged he would be the sole recipient of money if none was paid to Jason Hachmeister.

As for Sheila Hachmeister's dog, Harley, senior assistant district attorney Todd Hiatt said in closing arguments that the fact the dog was kenneled in the bathroom showed premeditation on the defendant's part.

Harley normally ran loose inside the house when Sheila Hachmeister was at home, Hiatt said. But when police arrived at the home, the dog was barricaded inside the bathroom, and the victim was dead on a floor.

Jason Hachmeister placed the dog in there before he killed his mother in the morning, left the house to run a series of errands in the afternoon, and reported her death late in the afternoon, Hiatt said.

Topeka police Detective Scott Dickey said the victim bore "defensive wounds" on her hands, showing she tried to fight back.

"One of her fingers was almost severed," Dickey said, and a fingernail was found on the ground next to her.

"There was a violent rage based on the injuries to her head," Dickey said.

During the first day of the preliminary hearing, former coroner Erik Mitchell said the victim had numerous stab wounds on her hands and head, but died from strangulation.

Mitchell said the twine that strangled her had been wrapped so tightly it was embedded in the victim's neck.