Judge vacates Virginia man’s murder conviction; he walks free after 25 years

A Virginia man’s murder conviction has been vacated and he has been freed from prison after spending 25 years behind bars — including more than a decade on death row.

Justin Michael Wolfe ’s release on Monday marks the end of a complex legal saga that at one point had him just days away from an execution date for the 2001 murder of Daniel Petrole in Bristow, Virginia. Judge Carl Weimer vacated the conviction after the only witness tying Wolfe to the shooting recanted his testimony, and Wolfe agreed to a plea deal on marijuana and robbery charges for a sentence of time served.

Wolfe, 45, spent his first few hours of freedom in a whirlwind of normalcy: Eating pizza, running errands with his mom, planning a family dinner.

“The thing I relish most is getting to know my nieces and nephews,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “I did 25 years for a marijuana case, something that you can go buy at the store now. I feel like I handled it as well as I could.”

Wolfe was 19 when the case began

Wolfe’s case drew widespread attention when it began in the early 2000s, exposing a then-shocking drug ring involving Wolfe and several other teens in northern Virginia. At the time, authorities said they estimated Wolfe and the others may have sold as much as $10 million worth of marijuana and the synthetic drug ecstasy before they were caught, using the money on high-dollar vacations to Hawaii and Atlantic City while maintaining a veneer of everyday suburban life.

Prosecutors said Wolfe hired another young marijuana dealer, Owen Barber, to shoot and kill Daniel Petrole on March 15, 2001. Petrole was Wolfe’s friend from high school as well as his drug supplier, and prosecutors said Wolfe owed Petrole more than $60,000.

After the shooting, Barber told a friend what he had done and the friend notified police, according to court records. Barber eventually pleaded guilty as part of a deal to avoid the death penalty, and was sentenced to 60 years for the murder.

Advocacy groups took up Wolfe’s case

Meanwhile, a grand jury indicted Wolfe on charges including capital murder. Wolfe testified in his own defense and denied any involvement in Petrole’s death, but he was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to death.

The only person tying Wolfe to the murder-for-hire scheme was Barber. And Barber later recanted his trial testimony, saying Wolfe wasn’t involved in the murder and that law enforcement officers had repeatedly threatened him with the death penalty unless he cooperated with Wolfe’s prosecution.

Legal advocacy groups, including the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the Innocence Project at the University of Virginia School of Law and others took up Wolfe’s cause. But legal wins in the case were at times incremental, and each step took years.

Wolfe’s death sentence was overturned, but he still faced decades in prison

After Wolfe appealed, a federal judge determined that prosecutors had engaged in misconduct and vacated his death sentence, ordering a new trial. But Barber refused to testify on Wolfe’s behalf because he feared it would violate the plea deal he had reached in his own case, potentially subjecting Barber to a new death penalty trial.

More legal wrangling ensued, and in 2016 Wolfe was resentenced to up to 41 years in prison as part of a plea deal to avoid another death sentence. The deal also required him to apologize to Petrole’s family.

“I understand all the pain and suffering I caused,” Wolfe said at his 2016 sentencing, looking directly at Petrole’s family. “I know an apology is not enough, but I’m sorry.”

Virginia abolished the death penalty in 2021. Barber, who was no longer at risk of facing capital punishment, signed a new sworn statement in 2023 vowing that Wolfe had nothing to do with Petrole’s death. Two other people also provided sworn statements that Barber had told each of them that Wolfe wasn’t involved in Petrole’s death.

An appeals court criticized an overzealous prosecution

Last year, a panel of federal appellate judges agreed that Wolfe had been the victim of prosecutorial misconduct.

“Twenty-four years ago, the Commonwealth decided that appellant was a guilty man,” U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel. “From that moment, the Commonwealth has done everything in its power to ensure Appellant dies in prison, eschewing the Constitution, ethical strictures, and Appellant’s own repeated and consistent assertions of actual innocence.”

Wolfe’s release this week came as part of a new plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to selling marijuana and entered a modified guilty plea known as an Alford plea to solicitation of robbery. An Alford plea essentially allows a defendant to plead guilty despite maintaining their innocence.

“The system is broken,” his mom, Steinberg, said. “What they did to him was cruel and unusual punishment, and what they did to the Petroles was just prolong their pain.”

New prosecutors say the resolution is an ‘appropriate outcome’

In a statement released Monday, Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Amy Ashworth called the resolution a “just and appropriate outcome” to a case that was mishandled by a previous administration.

“We recognize that people will have strong and differing views about this resolution,” with some believing it establishes Wolfe’s guilt and others his innocence, Ashworth said.

Petrole’s family says they will always love and miss him

Petrole’s family also issued a statement, included in the Prince William County Commonwealth Attorney’s office release.

They asked for privacy and said they hope that now they “can finally begin to close this chapter and remember Danny for life rather than for the circumstances of his death.”

Wolfe is looking toward the future

Steinberg said she’s looking forward to healing, as a family.

Wolfe is facing an adjustment period. Simple things like being able to choose when to sleep, and showering without a correctional officer escort are novel changes after a quarter-century behind bars. But he hopes to eventually become an advocate for criminal justice reform.

“We just went to Costco, and that was sensory overload,” Wolfe said with a chuckle. “I’m going to get the hang of it. I’ll be alright.”

___ Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.