PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA – Justin Wolfe, a Centreville man who has been appealing his 2002 murder conviction for the past two decades, was released on Monday night after a court once again vacated his prior convictions and Prince William County prosecutors struck a deal with him.
In a statement Monday evening, Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Amy Ashworth explained that the county and Wolfe agreed to a deal in which he would plead guilty to distributing marijuana and enter a no-contest plea to a charge of criminal solicitation, resulting in a sentence of 28 years with three years suspended, time Wolfe has already served.
Wolfe was convicted of murder in 2002 and sentenced to death. A Prince William County jury found Wolfe guilty of arranging the murder of 21-year-old Danny Petrole, a drug supplier to whom Wolfe, who was 19 at the time of the crime, owed tens of thousands of dollars, prosecutors said. Petrole was shot to death in front of his home in Bristow.
A third man, Owen Barber, then 22, admitted to pulling the trigger in exchange for a lighter sentence – 38 years in prison – as reported by the Washington Post and others.
Barber is the only person who ever implicated Wolfe in the slaying, and it is his testimony and recantations over the years that would be the basis for repeated appeals.
Wolfe admitted his role in an extensive regional drug ring but maintained his innocence in the murder. Both Wolfe and Barber have reversed their positions on the case over the years, with Barber saying in 2005 that he was pressured by prosecutors into implicating Wolfe in the murder, only to revert to his original position the following year and continue his reversals for two decades.
In 2011, a judge threw out Wolfe's conviction, saying prosecutors had ignored or withheld information that could have helped Wolfe's defense. That decision was appealed and upheld, and prosecutors decided to retry the case and seek a death penalty, with the Fairfax County commonwealth's attorney stepping in to replace Prince William County prosecutors, who stepped aside.
That move sparked criticism of the Fairfax prosecutor's relationship with the case's prior prosecutors. This case would also later be found to have been pursued improperly.
After 15 years in prison, much of it on death row, Wolfe pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 2016 and was sentenced to 60 years in prison with 27 suspended, avoiding a possible death sentence. Barber's testimony would have once again played a key role in the prosecution.
Wolfe went on to appeal that decision, saying he was the victim of a vindictive prosecution and prosecutorial misconduct. Those appeals eventually drew input from the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 2025, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found that prosecutors had handled Barber's recantations improperly and that Wolfe was legally allowed to have the facts of his case reexamined, saying, "[W]e hold that it is more likely than not that any reasonable jury would have reasonable doubt about [Wolfe's] guilt. Barber's multiple 'credible' recantations, his assertions that [Wolfe] had nothing at all to do with the crime, the weakness of the Commonwealth's case, the history of the Commonwealth's egregious misconduct, and the strength of [Wolfe's] claims challenging the voluntariness of his plea together support that conclusion."
The court noted that over the years, Prince William County police and prosecutors had repeatedly pressured Barber, the only person to implicate Wolfe, into pointing the finger, threatening Barber with the death penalty and suggesting he could save himself by creating a conspiracy, saying if he recanted prior testimony, his own plea deal would be nullified and he'd again face the death penalty.
In 2023, Barber declared once again that Wolfe had nothing to do with the murder.
The Fourth Circuit was scathing in its assessment of the handling of Wolfe's case, writing, "Twenty-four years ago, the Commonwealth decided that [Wolfe] was a guilty man. From that moment, the Commonwealth has done everything in its power to ensure [Wolfe] dies in prison, eschewing the Constitution, ethical strictures, and [Wolfe's] own repeated and consistent assertions of actual innocence."
In her statement, Ashworth acknowledged that, "The handling of this case has also been deeply troubling. Significant information was not disclosed during the first trial, and allegations of witness intimidation arose during the retrial. The result has been decades of litigation and uncertainty for everyone involved."
She explained that her office had been warned that federal courts might overturn Wolfe's convictions and either order a retrial or bar the Commonwealth from prosecuting Wolfe further. Ashworth said her office undertook an extensive review of the evidence and case history, and concluded that the deal was the most appropriate outcome.
Ashworth's office said "there are no winners here" and "Nothing about this resolution changes the fundamental fact that Danny Petrole was murdered and can never be returned to his family and loved ones."
Inside Nova reported that Wolfe, now 45, walked out of Prince William-Manassas regional jail Monday night.
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