Wolfe to Federal Court: Fair Trial Not Possible

After more than a dozen years, a capital murder case surrounding the March 2001 death of a young man from Centreville continues to wind through the court system.

Justin Michael Wolfe, whose 2002 conviction and death sentence for ordering the murder of Daniel Robert Petrole Jr. was overturned by federal courts, has filed for a petition for re-hearing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. The circuit court has upheld the vacation of Wolfe’s conviction, but a three-judge panel most recently voted to allow a retrial. That decision came on a 2-1 vote with a scathing dissent from Judge Stephanie D. Thacker.

“We believe, given the strength of the dissent and the seriousness of the issues, we’re justified in pursuing a re-hearing,” said Ashley Parrish, an attorney from King & Spalding, the firm that is handling Wolfe’s appeal.

Wolfe’s defense has argued that he cannot get a fair trial, primarily for prosecutors' actions after his sentence was vacated. Last fall, the original prosecutors in the case – Prince William Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul B. Ebert and prosecutor Richard A. Conway – and Prince William County Detective Samson Newsome confronted triggerman Owen Merton Barber in prison.

Barber previously told a federal judge that his December 2005 affidavit—in which he stated that Wolfe did not order Petrole’s murder and was not aware of the plan that night—was true and that he lied in Wolfe’s 2002 trial to escape capital punishment.

During the meeting, Conway told Barber that some prisoners who have testified in a manner substantially different to their plea agreements have faced re-trial on capital murder charges. Prosecutors also have sought to use Barber’s original testimony during Wolfe’s re-trial, if he refuses to testify.

After the meeting last fall with Ebert, Conway and Newsome, Barber began to assert his Fifth Amendment privilege. The defense argues that this denies Wolfe the ability to have Barber testify on his behalf.

The petition filed by Wolfe’s defense argues that the Commonwealth “attempted to coerce the central witness in the case to revert to his perjured trial testimony and, when that gambit failed, to ensure the witness had no choice but to invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege and therefore be unavailable to testify in Wolfe’s defense.”

Terri Steinberg, Wolfe’s mother, said she’s concerned that her son has been “languishing away in prison” for more than a decade. She said she has little confidence in a new trial because of actions by prosecutors that one federal judge called “unconstitutional.”

“I just don’t think justice is sitting through another questionable trial and having to go through another appeals process,” Steinberg said.

An attempt to reach Daniel Petrole Sr. at his office Friday was unsuccessful.

Patch is awaiting a response from Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh, the prosecutor named for the re-trial. The Commonwealth has not yet filed its response to the petition for re-hearing.

Parrish believed the court's decision on a re-hearing could come as quickly as one week or take as long as a couple of months.