Man Gets 40 Years For 1994 Slaying Solved With DNA

A Fairfax County man who admitted stabbing another man 64 times, then tried to minimize his involvement before his sentencing, was given the maximum 40-year term yesterday for second-degree murder.

The slaying of Marvin Greenwell, 55, occurred in a Huntington area apartment in May 1994. For years, police had few leads in the case. But after a Fairfax cold case detective resubmitted DNA evidence from Greenwell's apartment, the state's DNA databank discovered a suspect last year: Leslie E. Carver, now 45, who had committed a series of armed robberies shortly after the Greenwell murder, in the same area.

While detectives were investigating Carver, he was picked up by Prince William County police in June last year on charges of drug possession. In several tape-recorded conversations from the Prince William jail, according to court records, Carver made some fairly explicit admissions.

"I killed somebody in 1994," he told his mother. "I have to live with that every day of my life, Mom, every day, you know."

When Fairfax detectives went to talk to him, Carver denied killing Greenwell. But faced with the prospect of a first-degree murder trial, and the combination of the DNA evidence and phone transcripts, Carver pleaded guilty in July to second-degree murder.

After every felony guilty plea in Fairfax, an officer from the state probation and parole agency conducts an interview to get the defendant's personal history and version of the crime as part of a report to the judge before a sentencing hearing. Fairfax Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Marc J. Birnbaum said Carver told the probation officer that "he doesn't accept responsibility. He comes up with this other person involved who really killed" Greenwell.

Birnbaum noted that Carver's criminal record stretched 27 years, featured nine incarcerations and moved from property crimes to drugs to violence. "Any way one looks at this case," Birnbaum said, "it is a cruel, violent and vicious crime."

Deputy Fairfax Public Defender Dawn Butorac, one of Carver's attorneys, said Carver did accept responsibility for the murder by admitting that he was in the room when Greenwell was killed, which would provide the legal culpability for a murder conviction.

State sentencing guidelines in effect in 1994 suggested a possible prison term of 13 to 27 years, Butorac said. Because Carver has had previous probations and paroles revoked for at least the next 14 years, Butorac suggested that Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows sentence Carver to 13 years, the low end of the sentencing guidelines.

Carver stood and said, "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry to the Greenwell family." Turning to the judge, he said: "I don't know. I'd ask if you could give me a little time in there, so I might be able to get out one day."

Bellows reminded Carver that at his guilty plea in July, "you told me that you killed Mr. Greenwell. And I don't have any reservations that is exactly what you did." After reading Carver's claim that he didn't actually stab Greenwell, the judge said he went back and listened to the taped conversations from the jail.

The judge also reviewed the crime scene photos. In 30 years as a public defender, prosecutor and judge, Bellows said, "this is among the worst I've ever seen."

Bellows said: "I feel that the [sentencing guidelines] are completely inappropriate in this case. The maximum sentence is 40 years, and that is what I impose."

Greenwell's widow and three grown children began applauding loudly.

Carver's daughter Melanie, 21, stood up, weeping, and shouted, "I love you, Dad."

Carver yelled over his shoulder, "I love you, too," as he was led out of the courtroom.