Justin Wolfe sentenced to serve 41 years in prison for 2001 murder

Speaking from the witness stand in a Prince William Circuit courtroom Wednesday morning, Dan Petrole recalled in vivid detail the night his son, 21-year-old Daniel Petrole Jr., died.

It was March 15, 2001, and Dan Petrole and his wife, Jane, had just gone to bed when the phone rang, he said. When Jane Petrole answered the phone, one of the first things she said was, “Is he dead?” Dan Petrole testified.

“I’ll never forget getting the call that night,” he said.

The parents jumped in their car and drove to their son’s townhouse in Bristow.

“I saw flashing red lights, flashing blue lights, crime scene tape,” Dan Petrole said. He spotted a detective at the scene and asked him if his son was dead. “I’m sorry,” the detective replied.

After claiming his innocence – much of it from death row -- for 15 years, Justin Michael Wolfe pleaded guilty in March to first-degree murder, marijuana distribution and use of a firearm in commission of a felony for Petrole’s death.

At a sentencing hearing Wednesday, Prince William Circuit Court Judge Carroll A. Weimer sentenced Wolfe to serve 41 years in prison, the maximum allowed under a plea agreement entered in the case. Wolfe will get credit for the time he has served.

Click here to read Wolfe's letter to the judge

Prosecutors have said that Wolfe, then 19, a marijuana dealer plotted to kill Petrole, his supplier, because Wolfe owed Petrole $60,000. In a letter he wrote to the court in March, Wolfe admitted for the first time that he agreed to a plan to kill Petrole that he said was proposed by Owen Barber, who admitted to the actual shooting and killing.

Barber pleaded guilty and testified against Wolfe at his trial, but recanted and changed his testimony several times over the years.

The case was seemingly resolved in 2002, when a jury convicted Wolfe of capital murder and sentenced him to death. But both the initial conviction and death sentence were thrown out in 2011 after a federal judge ruled that prosecutors in the case withheld key evidence.

Wolfe had been set to stand trial a second time next year, but instead pleaded guilty.

In a courtroom packed with family members and friends of Petrole and Wolfe, Petrole’s parents described their son and their loss.

“March 15, 2001 was the worst day of my life,” Jane Petrole said. “My son was taken away from me. He was not just my son, but one of my best friends.”

Dan Petrole paused to compose himself several times during his testimony, describing his joy the day his oldest son was born, bright moments from his childhood, and the last time he spoke to him, hours before he died.

“We ended the call like we always did. He said, ‘I love you, Daddy’ and I said, ‘I love you too, buddy.’ Those are the last words I heard from him,” Petrole said.

After he and his wife rushed to the crime scene, Dan Petrole said he asked to see his son, and a detective let him go into the ambulance to see his son’s body.

“I just kissed him on the forehead and told him I loved him,” he said.

Dan Petrole said his family’s pain was worsened by the lengthy legal proceedings surrounding Wolfe’s case, the many social media posts, magazine articles, and podcasts about the case and more.

“It was just a continuing hurt,” he said. “There has never been a chance to have any closure.”

In two letters he wrote to the court, Wolfe said he decided to plead guilty in part because he felt the Petrole family deserved to know what happened to Petrole.

“I know writing this down can never take away all the pain I have caused you, but I hope it give you something to help you heal,” Wolfe wrote, addressing Petrole’s family, in a letter he wrote to the court in March. “I do not deserve your forgiveness but I want you to know the truth and that is why I am writing this. I am sorry for what I did to your son.”

In a letter written this month in preparation for his sentencing hearing, Wolfe said he wanted Petrole’s family to know he is sorry.

“I hope Danny’s family knows just how sorry I am and how ashamed I am of myself. I know I caused them immense pain that will never be able to heal and I think about all the things that Danny and his family missed out on,” Wolfe wrote. “Danny was a good person and didn’t deserve to die.”

Defense attorney Joseph Flood asked the judge to consider not just the person Wolfe was at the time of the offense, but the good person he has become since then.

“Justin did a terrible thing, but that’s not his true character,” Flood said. “We are not the sum total of the worst thing we ever did nor is Justin Wolfe.”

Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Raymond Morrogh, the special prosecutor appointed in the case, asked the judge to consider the carefully premeditated nature of the crime. Morrogh and Petrole’s parents also repeatedly pointed out that after the shooting, Wolfe “celebrated” by buying drinks for friends at a Fairfax bar.

“He celebrated my son’s death. Who does that? What kind of person does that?” Jane Petrole said.

Weimer, the judge, said that fact and the fact that the killing was deliberately planned and premeditated influenced his sentence.

Weimer also referenced Flood’s argument that the crime was out of character for Wolfe.

“My belief is that character is defined by what we do when no one is watching,” Weimer said. “When Danny Petrole died, Justin Wolfe thought no one was watching or would find out.”

Before he was sentenced, Wolfe said he wanted “to apologize to the court and the Petroles.”

“Danny was a great person… I’m sorry for all the pain and suffering I caused,” Wolfe said. “I know an apology is not enough. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

Weimer sentenced Wolfe to three years for the firearms charge, 20 years, with 15 year’s suspended for the marijuana distribution charge, and 60 years, with 27 years suspended for first-degree murder, giving him 41 years to serve. He also sentenced him to 15 years of active probation and three years of post-release supervision.