After 15 years of denying that he ordered the killing of Danny Petrole, Justin Wolfe reversed himself last week in a handwritten confession. In it, he admitted giving the go-ahead to the man who carried out the hit.
“I know that I can never make up for what I did,” he wrote. “But I hope that this brings some peace to Danny’s family … I am responsible for Danny’s death, even though I did not pull the trigger. If I had not been involved, Danny would never have been killed.”
On March 15, 2001, Centreville High grad Petrole, 21, was shot and killed outside his Bristow townhouse. The crime involved drug-dealing and money, and the shooter — Chantilly High grad Owen Barber IV, 21, who pleaded guilty — received 38 years in prison.
Largely on Barber’s testimony, Chantilly grad Wolfe was convicted of hiring Barber for the killing and, in June 2002, was sentenced to death. He was also given 33 years in prison for drug and firearm charges.
The murder exposed a drug ring of major proportions operating in the Centreville/Chantilly area. Hundreds of thousands of dollars changed hands regularly, and Wolfe, Barber and Petrole were in the thick of it.
According to authorities – and, now, Wolfe’s confession – Petrole had fronted Wolfe some $65,000 worth of marijuana, but Wolfe, then almost 20, didn’t have the money to pay him back. Wolfe said he’d been spending his own drug-dealing proceeds on cocaine and alcohol. He also said he and Barber planned Petrole’s death and agreed that Barber would kill him, they’d split the drugs Petrole was carrying and Wolfe would forgive a debt Barber owed him.
Wolfe wrote that, on the night of Petrole’s death, Barber stalked him in a car, while being in constant contact with Wolfe via cell phone. Then when Petrole arrived home, Barber fired 10 shots from a 9 mm Smith & Wesson through Petrole's passenger-side window, with all but one bullet striking him.
Driving away, Barber tossed the gun into a nearby intersection, where it was quickly found. Both he and Wolfe then fled the state — Barber to California and Wolfe to Florida — but were arrested that April. Meanwhile, Petrole’s murder stunned the community because he was the son of a former Secret Service agent who lived in Virginia Run. And on the surface, he was just a college student who worked part-time delivering flowers.
But when police searched Petrole’s belongings following his death, they discovered $965 in his wallet and $17,460 in the trunk of his car. In his townhouse were guns, $120,366 in cash and nearly half a million dollars’ worth of ecstasy and marijuana. And during Wolfe’s first trial, much of the testimony came from young, self-admitted drug dealers and users in the local area.
In June 2002, Wolfe received the death penalty and spent 11 years on death row. But because Prince William County prosecutors deliberately withheld information that would have impeached Barber’s testimony, in 2011 and 2012, two federal courts vacated Wolfe’s convictions and sentences.
Initially facing the death penalty, Barber testified he didn’t know Petrole, but killed him because Wolfe hired him. It was later revealed that prosecutors and a detective influenced Barber to say those things in exchange for his charge being reduced from capital to first-degree murder. And Barber, himself, later recanted his testimony implicating Wolfe.
During a November 2010 hearing in Federal Court in Norfolk, U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Jackson heard evidence not presented previously. Subsequently, in his July 2011 decision to overturn Wolfe’s convictions and sentences, Jackson said Wolfe’s due-process rights had been violated before and during his capital-murder trial.
In August 2012, citing “prosecutorial misconduct” by Prince William County prosecutors Paul Ebert and Rick Conway, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld Jackson’s ruling. But with Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh as special prosecutor, Prince William County decided to retry Wolfe.
The proceedings remained in Circuit Court there and, this time, the charges included felony murder and engaging in a continuous criminal enterprise. And once again, Wolfe faced the death penalty — all the while maintaining his innocence.
With a slew of pre-trial motions, several changes in defense attorneys and a failed attempt at a Supreme Court hearing, the case dragged on for years — until Wolfe’s surprising turnaround last week.
“Maybe it seems easy for me to say ‘I’m sorry,’ but it’s actually the hardest thing I have ever done,” he wrote. He said that’s because it means he has to admit what he did — “which contradicts what I said at trial and the position I have taken for all of my appeals, and I am very afraid that I will let the people I love down.”
In a four-page letter dated March 19, he spoke directly to Petrole’s parents. Wolfe explained the details leading up to their son’s death and his reasons for having him killed. He said he’d fallen behind in the money he owed Petrole for shipments of marijuana which he (Wolfe) then sold to his own customers, and he realized the best way out was to have Petrole killed.
“I know writing this doesn’t ever take away all the pain I have caused you,” wrote Wolfe, now 35. “I do not deserve your forgiveness, but I want you to know the truth.” He ended his letter with the words, “I am sorry for what I did to your son.”
His confession was officially accepted into evidence last Tuesday, March 29, by Circuit Court Judge Carroll Weimer Jr. Wolfe’s attorneys also made a plea deal with the prosecution, taking the death penalty off the table.
He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, plus a drug offense. And when he’s sentenced July 20, he could receive anywhere from 29-41 years in prison, minus credit for the 15 years he’s already served.
Afterward, Wolfe’s mother, Terri Steinberg, said, “My family continues to love and support Justin, even in this decision. It has been a long and hard journey. I know it has been hard on the Petrole family, and I will continue to pray for them to find peace.”