Va. drug dealer ends 15 years of denial, admits to 2001 murder

Posted: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 12:25 pm

Associated Press |

MANASSAS, Va. (AP) — After 15 years of denial, a northern Virginia drug dealer admitted his role in a 2001 murder as part of a plea bargain that spares him a possible death sentence.

Justin Wolfe's guilty plea Tuesday in Prince William Circuit Court ends a long-running saga which at one point left him only five days away from a scheduled execution. At another point, he was only hours from being set free by a judge who accused prosecutors of misconduct. ... Wolfe's plea will result in 29 to 41 years behind bars when he is sentenced in July, the Washington Post reported (http://wapo.st/1ROnbeq). He will get credit for the 15 years he has already served.

Wolfe, and an associate, Owen Barber, were still in their teens when they ran a large-scale drug operation selling high-grade marijuana throughout northern Virginia, frequently to high school students. Wolfe was convicted and sent to death row in 2002 for the murder of his supplier, Daniel Petrole. Barber was key witness at that trial, saying he pulled the trigger after conspiring with Wolfe because of a large debt owed to Petrole.

Barber's testimony came as part of a plea bargain that resulted in a 38-year prison sentence for him.
....

Wolfe's case attracted the support of The Innocence Project at The University of Virginia School of Law and others who rallied to his cause. He wrote in his confession that acknowledging the murder is "the hardest thing I have ever done because it means I have to admit what I did which contradicts what I said at trial and the position that I have taken for all of my appeals and I am very afraid that I will let the people I love down."

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Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com

Justin Wolfe admits role in drug dealer’s slaying, enters guilty plea after stint on death row

By Tom Jackman and T. Rees Shapiro March 29 at 6:01 PM
@T9omJackmanWP
@TReesShapiro

Justin Michael Wolfe, whose capital murder conviction and death sentence were reversed amid concerns about prosecutorial misconduct, pleaded guilty to murder in Prince William County on Tuesday, admitting in a handwritten statement that he and another man plotted the 2001 robbery and slaying of a fellow marijuana dealer.

It was a stunning reversal from Wolfe, who had proclaimed his innocence for 15 years. Wolfe had argued, at times from Virginia’s death row, that the murder of Daniel Petrole Jr., the son of a decorated Secret Service agent, was the work of a rogue drug associate. The case featured a co-defendant repeatedly changing his story about the slaying, a federal district judge ordering Wolfe’s release from jail in 2012, and two federal courts chastising Prince William prosecutors for withholding evidence from the defense.

Wolfe pleaded guilty to a charge of first-degree felony murder, use of a firearm, and a drug charge, part of an agreement with prosecutors that will allow a judge to sentence him to a range of 29 to 41 years in prison. He will get credit for the 15 years he already has served.

{Read Justin Wolfe’s full statement to the court}

In a four-page handwritten statement to the court, Wolfe essentially validated the prosecution’s consistent version of events: Wolfe and Owen Merton Barber IV decided to rob and kill Petrole because they knew he would have a large amount of cash and marijuana and feared that a robbery alone would invite revenge. Wolfe acknowledged that he owed Petrole tens of thousands of dollars from continuing drug transactions, and he said that he had planned to split the proceeds with Barber and erase a debt Barber owed him.