1989 season murder that was solved in 2005 - Veronica Jefferson

[Blackout]

ARLINGTON -- The murder is 17 years old, but Arlington Police say they have their man.
A grand jury has indicted 40-year-old Alfredo Rolando Prieto for the killing of Veronica Jefferson, a former CIA finance officer when she was 24 years old.

Her body was found behind McKinley Elementary School on May 11, 1988.

Commonwealth Attorney Richard Trodden would not say what led authorities to Prieto who is already serving time in prison in California for another case.

He's expected to be tried in Arlington next year.

[kadrmas15]

Yes, this case has been discussed in many threads. The updates are there. The charges against Prieto in Arlington County were dropped after he was convicted of killing Warren Fulton and Rachel Raver in Fairfax County. Prieto actually killed at least one, maybe more people out in California too. He was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death in 1992 in California for killing a 15 year old girl. The reason why Virginia charged him now is that California's death penalty system is so dysfunctional and appeals are much more lengthy, plus California is located in the very liberal and very busy U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals which by far overturns more death penalty cases than any appeals court in the country. So, Prieto, even if everything in his case was upheld, he still was probably another 10 years away from execution as in California the average wait is 25 years.

So, they extradited him to Virginia, I believe in 2005. His appeals in California continue. However once they run out in one of the two states he can be executed even if they have not run out in the other one. Virginia's death penalty appeals process goes much faster because their courts are a lot more conservative and they have a lot less people on death row. Plus Virginia is in the very conservative U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals which overturns fewer cases than any other circuit. Prieto was convicted at his first trial in 2007. However during the penalty phase, one juror came to the judge and said that he did not think Prieto was guilty of murder and that he had been bullied into voting to convict by his fellow jurors.

The judge had two choices in this circumstance. He could either declare a mistrial in the penalty phase in which case the death penalty would be off the table and Prieto would be given two life sentences in prison for the murder plus various other sentences for the other charges. Or, he could declare a mistrial for the whole thing, including the trial, thus wiping away Prieto's convictions and just starting over with a new jury and a new trial. The trial judge did the latter and I expect that will be used as an appellate issue later on as Prieto's lawyers will say that Prieto should have been sentenced to life.

Anyway, a mistrial was declared, and in 2008, Prieto went on trial again. This time he was convicted again and the penalty phase went more smoothly and Prieto was sentenced to death in Fairfax County. However on direct appeal, in an opinion filed in September, the Virginia Supreme Court, while upholding Prieto's convictions, erased his death sentences and remanded back to the court in Fairfax County for a new penalty phase. Anyway, it will be sometime next year that a new Fairfax County jury will be picked to hear evidence in the case. I expect Prieto will get death again but there has been so many kinks in this case already so who knows? Basically, even if Prieto gets the death penalty again the appeals process starts all over again. So we are looking at least a 5 to 6 year wait after he is sentenced to death again before he is ultimately executed.