Man accused of attacking girl with hammer will plead insanity

LAWRENCEVILLE - The 29-year-old man who walked into a Gwinnett County elementary school and hit a fourth-grader on the back of the head with a hammer in February will use an insanity defense when he goes to trial. <br> <br> Elizabeth Peterson, the Atlanta attorney representing Chad Brant Hagaman, said yesterday her client will enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity at his court arraignment scheduled for June 25. <br> <br> District Attorney Danny Porter said, ``It will be on the burden of the defense to prove that he is not guilty by reason of insanity. Under the law, there is the presumption of sanity.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Hagaman was indicted by a Gwinnett grand jury May ninth for his alleged attack on the ten-year-old girl. He is charged with aggravated assault and aggravated battery. <br> <br> Police say Hagaman walked to Mountain Park Elementary School from his Lilburn home February 21 and struck the girl twice in the head with a hammer while she walked in the hallway with her classmates. <br> <br> Police said the attack was random; Hagaman did not know the girl. <br> <br> He is currently being held without bond at the Gwinnett Detention Center. <br> <br> The girl had emergency brain surgery after the hammer attack, and school administrators said she was well enough to return to school before classes let out for summer.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/6/193602