Thursday, December 27, 2012
Federal judge: ‘bungled prosecution’ has deprived defendant of his right to a fair trial.
A Christmas Eve ruling by a federal judge could make the re-trial of Justin Michael Wolfe in the March 2001 murder of Daniel Robert Petrole Jr. very difficult if not impossible. U.S. District Court Judge Raymond A. Jackson, who previously vacated Wolfe’s 2002 conviction, has ordered Wolfe’s release and barred the state from using any testimony, past or present, from the man who admittedly killed Petrole. Jackson ruled that Wolfe must be released within 10 days, but the state is able to appeal the decision. Owen Merton Barber IV testified at Wolfe’s 2002 trial that he killed Petrole at Wolfe's request. Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul B. Ebert told Barber’s sentencing judge that if not for his testimony Wolfe would not …
Monday, September 10, 2012
A Prince William County prosecutor indicated on Monday that his office will retry Justin Wolfe, a former death row inmate.
A Prince William County prosecutor on Monday indicated that his office would retry Justin Wolfe, a Chantilly man who spent over a decade on death row before his conviction was vacated. "It does need to be set for trial," Richard Conway, an assistant commonwealth's attorney, told Judge Mary Grace O'Brien at a hearing Monday in Prince William County Circuit Court. Wolfe will next appear in court on Friday, where his lawyers will make a motion to let him out on bail. The retrial date will also be set at Friday's hearing. "It's not what I hoped," Terri Steinberg, Wolfe's mother, said after the hearing. "I'm shocked, shocked." The news comes just one month after a federal appeals court confirmed the vacation of Wolfe's sentence. Both the …
Friday, May 18, 2012
Opposing sides debate whether information was improperly withheld.
A three-judge panel of U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond on Thursday listened to attorneys for opposing sides in a Virginia Death Row case in which a lower federal court vacated the sentences of Justin Michael Wolfe, of Chantilly. The state appealed the order of U.S. District Court Judge Raymond A. Jackson that overturned a death sentence related to the murder of Daniel Robert Petrole Jr., of Centreville, in March 2001. Triggerman Owen Merton Barber IV testified against Wolfe during Wolfe’s 2002 trial and has since changed his story more than once—most recently proclaiming Wolfe's innocence to Judge Jackson. Estimates of when the 4th Circuit ruling may come range from a couple of weeks to several months. The court previously …
Thursday, September 8, 2011
After vacation of all convictions, Chantilly man awaits state appeal.
Justin Michael Wolfe left the cell that he has called home for the past nine years Wednesday after the Virginia State Department of Corrections released the Chantilly man from death row and placed him in the Sussex II State Prison across the street. Wolfe’s convictions for murder-for-hire, marijuana distribution and a gun charges related to the 2001 murder of Centreville's Daniel Robert Petrole Jr. all were vacated by U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson earlier this year. Triggerman Owen Merton Barber IV, who testified in 2001 that Wolfe ordered the murder, told Jackson that Wolfe had nothing to do with the crime and that prosecutors – and even his own defense attorney – said he could only escape a capital trial by testifying against his …
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Even without murder charges, Justin Wolfe faces 20 years—while dealers up the chain now walk free.
Several steps remain for Justin Michael Wolfe, the death row inmate whose conviction and death sentence have been vacated, before he would be able to consider murder-for-hire charges behind him. And even if Wolfe walks away from those charges – a likely appeal and potential re-trial are anticipated related to the 2001 murder of Centreville's Daniel Robert Petrole Jr. – 20 years remain on his sentence for dealing marijuana. The Virginia Attorney General has 30 days from the date of U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson’s order to notify the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals whether the state will appeal the case. If the state appeals, then the losing side at the 4th Circuit would have the opportunity to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the …
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Chantilly man was on death row for a decade; triggerman recanted testimony against Wolfe.
Justin Michael Wolfe’s conviction and death sentence related to the 2001 murder of Daniel Robert Petrole Jr. has been vacated. The decision comes in response to a hearing last fall in which the triggerman in the case testified that Wolfe was not involved. The court found: “Wolfe was denied the right to due process pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment as interpreted in Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), to be apprised of all material, exculpatory information within the hands of the prosecution.” Wolfe’s attorneys had argued that he had not been given the opportunity to pursue information that could have cleared Wolfe prior to his trial in January 2001. A Prince William County jury convicted and sentenced Wolfe. Some jurors signed …
Monday, November 22, 2010
Conspirators named after triggerman recants testimony against Wolfe
Defense attorneys for Justin Michael Wolfe last week presented the clearest picture yet of possible alternate theories in the March 15, 2001, murder of a Centreville man, that they say should free Wolfe from a death sentence. Prosecutors remain adamant that Wolfe, 29, is responsible. A Prince William County jury convicted Wolfe in 2002 of hiring Owen Merton Barber IV to execute Daniel Robert Petrole Jr. Wolfe is on death row, where he has spent most of his nine and a half years of incarceration. Barber, 30, testified against Wolfe at trial, but recanted that story in 2005 and again during an evidentiary hearing for Wolfe that concluded Nov. 17. Without Barber's testimony, the case against Wolfe would have been only circumstantial. As in …
Monday, November 8, 2010
New information revealed from 2001 investigation of the murder of a Centreville man
Owen M. Barber IV, the admitted triggerman in the 2001 murder of Daniel Robert Petrole Jr. of Centreville, testified in federal court last week that the man who was convicted of ordering Petrole's killing and sentenced to death had nothing to do with the crime. Justin Michael Wolfe was convicted of ordering Barber to kill Petrole in a 2002 trial in which Barber's testimony was the only direct evidence that Wolfe was involved in the murder. Barber's testimony came during an evidentiary hearing that was being held as part of Wolfe's ongoing appeals process. The hearing, which has been continued to Nov. 16 and 17 in Norfolk, could result in Wolfe getting a new trial or in his conviction being upheld. During Wolfe's 2002 trial, Barber …
Jen C.
3:17 pm on Friday, December 28, 2012
Please oh please let this poor kid out of jail. Justin, we're pulling for you!!! more ›