Judge vacates Virginia man's murder conviction; he walks free after 25
years
[September 30, 2026]
By REBECCA BOONE
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.”
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In this photo taken with a smartphone and provided by Erin Wolfe,
Justin Wolfe, center, stands with his mother Terri Steinberg, left,
and uncle Joe Casamento at the Prince William County Jail, shortly
after Justin's release Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, in Manassas, Va.
(Erin Wolfe via AP)
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.
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