Fairfax Slaying Victim Identified
Woman, 80, Shot In Popular Park She Had Cherished

By Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 20, 2007

An 80-year-old Fairfax County woman -- described by a neighbor as "a quintessential sweet little old English lady" -- was identified yesterday as the victim of Wednesday's fatal shooting in a popular park, allegedly by a teenager who did not know her.

Joan M. Gillinson, married for 60 years and the mother of four, lived with her husband, retired anesthesiologist Roy S. Gillinson, in an apartment in the Montebello high-rise complex on Route 1. Her husband and friends said she liked to take leisurely walks and read in Huntley Meadows Park, in the Hybla Valley area.

About 2:40 p.m. Wednesday, Gillinson was shot to death in the park, Fairfax police said. A man with blood on his clothes ran from the park, climbed on a Fairfax Connector bus and held police at bay for nearly four hours. He threatened to kill himself before surrendering.

Kevin C. Kline, 18, who lived with his father in Woodbridge, was charged with murder in Gillinson's slaying. Police said Kline did not know Gillinson. Court records indicate that police recovered a 9mm Walther semiautomatic pistol from the bus. Kline could not have possessed a gun legally because he had just been convicted of assaulting a woman in Culpeper County and felons cannot have guns.

Kline was convicted of malicious wounding and abduction Oct. 2. Despite Kline's conviction and his fleeing to California after the attack in March, Culpeper Circuit Court Judge John R. Cullen allowed Kline to remain free on bond pending sentencing, county officials said.

Cullen did not return a phone message yesterday and has not explained his decision.

"The fact that distresses me most is that this man accused of a violent crime was let out," Roy Gillinson told WTOP radio yesterday. "The guy's deranged. He should never have been let out on bail."

Court records indicate that Joan Gillinson also might have been sexually assaulted. On Thursday, a Fairfax detective took DNA samples from Kline at the Fairfax jail.

If Gillinson was raped, prosecutors could seek the death penalty. Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh said yesterday that he would have to consider several factors before seeking capital punishment and "that's a call you'd have to make down the road."

On a warm, clear October afternoon, Gillinson was making one of her regular visits to Huntley Meadows, the second-largest park in Fairfax.

"She was a frequent visitor to the park," said county parks spokeswoman Judy Pedersen.

"The staff certainly knew her," Pedersen said. Some staff members were distraught by the slaying, she said, and the county was offering counseling to employees.

Roy Gillinson told WTOP that his wife loved to walk in the park whenever the weather was nice. Neighbor Jeanne Tifft said the Gillinsons were born in England, and "the English are walkers. She would go to Huntley Meadows, and I go there myself, although I never will again, as a nice place to have a pleasant, easy, level walk."

Neighbors said that Joan Gillinson was a retired nurse and that she remained active. She was often seen walking a dog outside their building.

"Mrs. Gillinson was a quintessential sweet little old English lady who never did any harm to anybody," Tifft said. Gillinson was "very much the traditional housewife: Take care of your house; take care of your husband. She liked to go for her walks, go to a space in nature that you think is safe, find a nice bench and read your book."

Although her name wasn't released until yesterday, word spread through her building Wednesday night that she was the victim. "I knew it was my wife because she didn't come home," Roy Gillinson told the radio station. "She's the love of my life."

It's not clear why Kline was in the park. Culpeper Commonwealth's Attorney Gary Close said Kline should have been in jail after convictions for his attack on a woman March 31.

Close said that Kline and his mother had rented a cottage on a farm but that they had a dispute with the landlord and left. At 6:30 a.m. March 31, Close said, the landlord walked into the barn with her dog, and the dog started barking.

The homeowner kept walking and "noticed a dark bundle in the corner," Close said. The woman realized the bundle was a person, and the person "jumped at her, ran toward her, screamed at her and got a Taser out, and she saw an electric arc."

Close said Kline "got her to the ground. They struggled for a while. Every time he got her down, the dog got his arm, he'd get off. He came at her several times." At one point, Close said, the dog bit off a chunk of Kline's lip.

The woman's yells for help attracted a neighbor, and when the neighbor intervened, Kline ran. The landlord knew who he was and identified him to police. But Kline fled to San Diego. He was arrested there in April and returned to Culpeper for trial.

At Kline's first court appearance, a judge set bond at $15,000. Culpeper prosecutors appealed in circuit court but lost, Close said. After Kline's conviction on malicious wounding and abduction charges, for which the jury recommended a five-year prison sentence, the prosecutors again asked to have his bond revoked. Cullen declined.

Cullen, 62, was appointed a juvenile court judge in 1989, became a circuit judge in 1994 and was reappointed in 2002 to an eight-year term. He is the presiding judge in Culpeper.

Close said Virginia law presumes that people charged with malicious wounding will be held without bond unless they can prove they are not a flight risk or a danger to the community.

"But when you have vicious criminal activity that includes physical attacks like this, and invasions of your home, at that point we think a person should be held without bond," Close said.