The woman who entered the residence of Delegate David Toscano and attacked his wife nearly a year ago entered a plea agreement January 23 in Charlottesville Circuit Court and was sentenced to 50 years in prison, with all but four years suspended.
Ogilvie, 36, a Yale grad and former patent attorney, stood before Judge John Cullen and pleaded guilty to breaking and entering, malicious wounding and abduction. When Cullen asked the petite blonde, handcuffed and wearing a red jumpsuit, if she was pleading guilty because she was in fact guilty, Ogilvie responded, “No.” The judge asked her why, and Ogilvie said because of the evidence against her, which is known as an Alford plea.
Fluvanna Commonwealth’s Attorney Jeff Haislip read a chronology of events leading to the charges. Ogilvie met Toscano, Nancy Tramontin and their son in 2010 during a Semester at Sea voyage. They became friends and Ogilvie moved to Charlottesville. By around mid 2012, the family, “particularly Ms. Tramontin, became uncomfortable with how the friendship was progressing” and stopped seeing Ogilvie, said Haislip.
There had been no contact between Ogilvie and the family for nearly two years until February 24, 2014 when Tramontin left her home off Park Street to take her son to music practice at 6:30pm. When she returned, the front door was open, said Haislip, but she thought she might have done that when she left. Tramontin heard a beep that sounded like a smoke alarm and went to the basement to check it out. “Someone jumped her from behind,” said Haislip. Ogilvie told her to get on the floor and tied her arms behind her.
The defendant was carrying a faucet duct-taped onto a pipe. “She swung the weapon and hit Ms. Tramontin on the head,” said Haislip. A second blow caused blood to trickle from Tramontin’s head. Ogilvie took Tramontin to toward the laundry, a room with a drain in the floor, said the prosecutor. Tramontin resisted and bit Ogilvie’s finger “very hard,” he said. Tramontin, who had become untied, grabbed the weapon and stuck Ogilvie between the eyes. “At that point, things began to change in the defendant’s demeanor,” said Haislip.
Tramontin, who wanted to get Ogilvie out of the house before her son got home, began talking to her and trying to calm her down. Ogilvie left, and after the son came home, Tramontin went to the emergency room to have the gash on her head treated, said Haislip.
Investigators are not sure whether Ogilvie entered the house through a window or with a key she may have had from housesitting, but when a search warrant was served, they found evidence she had been in the house without permission before February 24, said Haislip. When Ogilvie was interviewed by detectives, she initially told them she’d been invited to the house—in one version saying Tramontin had picked her up—and said that Tramontin had thrown herself into a bathtub and hit her own head, according to Haislip.
Ogilvie’s attorney, Adam Rhea, noted that aside from that one day resulting in three felony charges, Ogilvie had no previous criminal history, and that she had voluntarily submitted to a psychological evaluation.
Judge Cullen accepted the plea and sentenced Ogilvie to 20 year for the breaking and entering, with all but two years suspended, 20 years for malicious wounding, with all but two years suspended, and 10 years for abduction, with 10 years suspended.
He also ordered Ogilvie to move outside the state of Virginia within 72 hours of getting out of prison and to come no closer than 100 miles to Charlottesville. She’s to have no contact with the Toscano family, she’ll be on supervised probation for an indefinite time, and must be on good behavior for 30 years.
Neither Toscano nor Tramontin were in court. Haislip said in agreeing to the plea, “the main concern was the safety of the victims.”
Updated January 26, 2015.