Fairfax County Man Gets Life Sentence For Murder Of CVS Manager

A Fauquier County judge sentenced a Fairfax County man to life in prison for the murder of a CVS manager in Warrenton last year. The judge added three more years for a firearm charge and six years of suspended time.

Bernard C. Duse, Jr. was convicted in August 2017 of first degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of murder for the July 26, 2017 murder of his boss at the CVS. Rex Olsen, 64, of Reva was a manager at the Blackwell Road CVS Store was shot and killed while taking out the trash near a dumpster behind the store.

Duse was a former assistant manager who lost a claim against CVS for age discrimination and retalation when he did not get a store manager position. According to evidence provided in court, Duse believed Olsen had had given him a low assessment score and was conspiring with CVS management against him.

Prosectors say Duse tried to stage the murder as a robbery afterward by stealing Olsen's phone. His and Olsen's phone tracked leaving the crime scene to Duse's home in eastern Fairfax County.

Duse was arrested six days after the murder. Detectives found gun shot primer residue in Duse's car. He had registered a gun that was consistent with the kind of gunshot wounds that struck Olsen. This gun was missing from Duse's home.

"Mr. Duse planned and carried out a horrific and brutal assassination of his boss Rex Olsen, said Commonwealth's Attorney Jim Fisher in court. "It was a murder imbued with a great deal of premeditation, lingering rage and malice."

Image via Warrenton Police