London Lass
05-23-2008, 05:57 PM
Prieto Given Two More Death Sentences for Murders
Alfredo R. Prieto, convicted of three murders and suspected in two other slayings, was given two more death sentences this morning by a Fairfax County judge.
Prieto Given Two More Death Sentences for Murders
Prieto, 42, was convicted in February of the rape and murder of Rachael A. Raver and the murder of Warren H. Fulton III, both 22, in a vacant lot outside Reston in December 1988. Prieto's lawyers then tried to convince the jury that Prieto, with an IQ of about 70, was mentally retarded and not eligible for the death penalty. But after three weeks of testimony, the jury rejected the retardation defense and recommended death sentences for both murders.
Nine of those jurors, along with many of Raver's family members, sat in Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows' courtroom to see if he would uphold their verdict. And when Bellows, a former federal prosecutor, looked at and spoke of the families of Raver and Fulton, tears came to his eyes and his voice cracked.
"You ruined their lives," Bellows told Prieto. "They will never, never recover. I could not put it better than Mrs. [Jackie] Fulton did when she said that the bullet you put in her son went through him and lodged in her heart."
Prieto, given the opportunity to make a statement, said: "I have nothing to say, by lawyer's advice." Unlike at the trial, when he wore a button-down shirt and dress slacks, today he wore a Fairfax jail coverall, which allowed one of the gang tattoos on his neck to be seen more clearly.
Prieto did not react when Bellows sentenced him to death, twice, and also imposed consecutive sentences of life, 20 years and six years for the rape, theft of Raver's car and use of a gun. It was the first death sentence issued in Fairfax in 10 years, since the 1998 sentencing of Mir Aimal Kasi for the fatal shootings of two people outside the CIA headquarters in Langley in 1993.
As Prieto rose to be escorted from the courtroom, Raver's brother Matthew leaned over and said, "Hey Prieto, go to your room." Prieto shook his head but said nothing. Matthew Raver later explained that Prieto "likes to have control, so I wanted to let him know he wouldn't have control any more."
Veronica Raver, Raver's mother, traveled from Yorktown, N.Y., one last time to watch a case that went through one five-week trial that ended in a mistrial last summer, and then an eight-week retrial this year. "We're pleased and thank God it's over," she said after the sentencing. "It's everything I prayed for. I'm still trembling." Then she turned and mildly scolded her son for speaking to Prieto.
Prieto already faced one death sentence in California, for the 1990 rape and shooting of 15-year-old Yvette Woodruff in Ontario, Calif. As a result of his incarceration there, his DNA was entered into a nationwide DNA data bank. In 2005, that data bank provided a hit out of the blue on the DNA left at the scene of Raver's and Fulton's slaying near Hunter Mill Road on Dec. 4, 1988. Their bodies were not found until two days later.
Police believe that Prieto intercepted them somewhere between a sports bar in the District and Fairfax County, and forced them to drive at gunpoint to the unlit lot now occupied by houses. The former Fairfax commonwealth's attorney, Robert F. Horan Jr., theorized that Prieto ordered Fulton to his knees and shot him once in the back. Horan said Raver then ran, was also shot once in the back and then raped as she lay dying.
"On the night you executed them," Bellows said, "you turned the final moments of their life into what could be described as a living hell. It's hard to imagine the desperation, horror and sheer terror you inflicted upon Ms. Raver and Mr. Fulton."
Horan, who retired last fall but stayed with this case, argued today that "it's hard to imagine a more vicious killing than what he did to Warren Fulton and Rachael Raver. You couldn't invent it much worse than what he did."
Horan sought Prieto's extradition to Virginia, despite the California death sentence, because Prieto's appeals were moving slowly and in 2005 were expected to still last another 10 years. So Horan obtained two murder indictments against Prieto in November 2005, and California agreed to send him to Virginia in April 2006.
In addition, prosecutors in Arlington obtained another murder indictment against him, after his DNA allegedly also matched that left at the scene of a May 1988 rape-murder. The details of the slaying of Veronica "Tina" Jefferson, 24, were then used in the sentencing phase of the Fairfax case, to help convince the jury to impose the death sentence.
Arlington prosecutors still are planning to try Prieto in September.
Prince William prosecutors also said Prieto is a suspect in the September 1989 slaying of Manuel F. Sermeno, whose body was found in a burning car near Interstate 95. But with three death sentences already imposed, prosecutors there are unlikely to try Prieto.
A juror from Prieto's first Fairfax trial, as well as nine jurors from the second trial, were in the audience today. The foreman of the second jury, Raymond G. Melusky Jr. of Fairfax, said his colleagues wanted "to try to show some support for the family. And really, to see it through to its conclusion. It's very rational, very fair, very unanimous."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/23/AR2008052301457.html?nav=rss_metro/crime
Alfredo R. Prieto, convicted of three murders and suspected in two other slayings, was given two more death sentences this morning by a Fairfax County judge.
Prieto Given Two More Death Sentences for Murders
Prieto, 42, was convicted in February of the rape and murder of Rachael A. Raver and the murder of Warren H. Fulton III, both 22, in a vacant lot outside Reston in December 1988. Prieto's lawyers then tried to convince the jury that Prieto, with an IQ of about 70, was mentally retarded and not eligible for the death penalty. But after three weeks of testimony, the jury rejected the retardation defense and recommended death sentences for both murders.
Nine of those jurors, along with many of Raver's family members, sat in Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows' courtroom to see if he would uphold their verdict. And when Bellows, a former federal prosecutor, looked at and spoke of the families of Raver and Fulton, tears came to his eyes and his voice cracked.
"You ruined their lives," Bellows told Prieto. "They will never, never recover. I could not put it better than Mrs. [Jackie] Fulton did when she said that the bullet you put in her son went through him and lodged in her heart."
Prieto, given the opportunity to make a statement, said: "I have nothing to say, by lawyer's advice." Unlike at the trial, when he wore a button-down shirt and dress slacks, today he wore a Fairfax jail coverall, which allowed one of the gang tattoos on his neck to be seen more clearly.
Prieto did not react when Bellows sentenced him to death, twice, and also imposed consecutive sentences of life, 20 years and six years for the rape, theft of Raver's car and use of a gun. It was the first death sentence issued in Fairfax in 10 years, since the 1998 sentencing of Mir Aimal Kasi for the fatal shootings of two people outside the CIA headquarters in Langley in 1993.
As Prieto rose to be escorted from the courtroom, Raver's brother Matthew leaned over and said, "Hey Prieto, go to your room." Prieto shook his head but said nothing. Matthew Raver later explained that Prieto "likes to have control, so I wanted to let him know he wouldn't have control any more."
Veronica Raver, Raver's mother, traveled from Yorktown, N.Y., one last time to watch a case that went through one five-week trial that ended in a mistrial last summer, and then an eight-week retrial this year. "We're pleased and thank God it's over," she said after the sentencing. "It's everything I prayed for. I'm still trembling." Then she turned and mildly scolded her son for speaking to Prieto.
Prieto already faced one death sentence in California, for the 1990 rape and shooting of 15-year-old Yvette Woodruff in Ontario, Calif. As a result of his incarceration there, his DNA was entered into a nationwide DNA data bank. In 2005, that data bank provided a hit out of the blue on the DNA left at the scene of Raver's and Fulton's slaying near Hunter Mill Road on Dec. 4, 1988. Their bodies were not found until two days later.
Police believe that Prieto intercepted them somewhere between a sports bar in the District and Fairfax County, and forced them to drive at gunpoint to the unlit lot now occupied by houses. The former Fairfax commonwealth's attorney, Robert F. Horan Jr., theorized that Prieto ordered Fulton to his knees and shot him once in the back. Horan said Raver then ran, was also shot once in the back and then raped as she lay dying.
"On the night you executed them," Bellows said, "you turned the final moments of their life into what could be described as a living hell. It's hard to imagine the desperation, horror and sheer terror you inflicted upon Ms. Raver and Mr. Fulton."
Horan, who retired last fall but stayed with this case, argued today that "it's hard to imagine a more vicious killing than what he did to Warren Fulton and Rachael Raver. You couldn't invent it much worse than what he did."
Horan sought Prieto's extradition to Virginia, despite the California death sentence, because Prieto's appeals were moving slowly and in 2005 were expected to still last another 10 years. So Horan obtained two murder indictments against Prieto in November 2005, and California agreed to send him to Virginia in April 2006.
In addition, prosecutors in Arlington obtained another murder indictment against him, after his DNA allegedly also matched that left at the scene of a May 1988 rape-murder. The details of the slaying of Veronica "Tina" Jefferson, 24, were then used in the sentencing phase of the Fairfax case, to help convince the jury to impose the death sentence.
Arlington prosecutors still are planning to try Prieto in September.
Prince William prosecutors also said Prieto is a suspect in the September 1989 slaying of Manuel F. Sermeno, whose body was found in a burning car near Interstate 95. But with three death sentences already imposed, prosecutors there are unlikely to try Prieto.
A juror from Prieto's first Fairfax trial, as well as nine jurors from the second trial, were in the audience today. The foreman of the second jury, Raymond G. Melusky Jr. of Fairfax, said his colleagues wanted "to try to show some support for the family. And really, to see it through to its conclusion. It's very rational, very fair, very unanimous."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/23/AR2008052301457.html?nav=rss_metro/crime