Man Convicted in 1988 Slayings

Jury to Weigh Execution of Prieto, a Suspect in Other Va. Deaths

A Fairfax County jury yesterday convicted Alfredo R. Prieto of two counts of capital murder in the slaying of a young couple near Reston in December 1988, and the jury will decide whether he should be executed.

Prosecutors promptly launched into the sentencing phase of the case and told the jury for the first time that Prieto is on death row in California for the 1990 rape and shooting of a 15-year-old girl. The jury also learned that Prieto is charged in Arlington County with the rape and shooting of a woman in 1988, and prosecutors will reveal details of that slaying for the first time.

In addition, Prieto is a "strong suspect" in the fatal shooting of a man in Prince William County in 1989, Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert said this week. Ebert has not charged Prieto in that case, so it will not be presented to the Fairfax jury, but the disclosure means authorities think Prieto killed five people, and raped three of them, in a 2 1/2 -year period.

The defense argued that Prieto is mentally retarded and thus is not eligible for execution. A psychiatrist who examined Prieto and diagnosed the retardation began testifying late yesterday.

Prieto, 42, was convicted of raping and killing Rachael A. Raver and killing Warren H. Fulton III, both 22, in a vacant lot along Hunter Mill Road on Dec. 4, 1988. The case remained unsolved for nearly 17 years until a DNA database matched semen left at the scene with Prieto, who by then had been on California's death row for 13 years. The Fairfax jury had not been told how or where Prieto's DNA was initially obtained. It was entered into the database after his California imprisonment.

Prieto did not testify in the Fairfax trial, which is in its fifth week. The jury deliberated for nine hours over two days before reaching its verdict. Prieto showed no reaction as the verdict was read.

Raver's older brother, Matthew Raver, told the jury yesterday of the devastation his family suffered when his sister was killed. "My father slipped into dementia," he said. "He has never been the same. . . . She was a clean-cut kid. She would not hurt a fly."

Fulton's father, Warren H. Fulton Jr., told the jury that his son was "a gorgeous, wonderful, talented young man." He said he and his wife feared the worst when his son didn't come home Dec. 4, 1988. Two days later, the father said, he was asked to identify his son's body, and "22 years of work and sacrifice and hopes and dreams and suddenly it's over."

After Prieto was identified as a suspect in 2005, Robert F. Horan Jr., the Fairfax commonwealth's attorney at the time, decided to extradite him to Virginia even though he faced death in California. Prieto's appeals have moved slowly through the California state and federal courts and could go on for 10 years, lawyers there said.

Horan estimated that the entire process, from trial to possible execution, could take five years and decided to try him in the Northern Virginia cases. Arlington County Commonwealth's Attorney Richard E. Trodden also indicted Prieto in the May 1988 rape and shooting of Veronica "Tina" Jefferson, and that trial is scheduled for September.

Prieto first went to trial in Fairfax in May, shortly after Horan announced he would retire after 40 years as Fairfax's chief prosecutor. The jury convicted Prieto of two counts of capital murder.

But in a separate phase to determine whether Prieto was mentally retarded, a juror began sending notes to the judge saying that he did not think Prieto was guilty. A mistrial was declared.

Fairfax elected to retry Prieto, and Horan agreed to return as an unpaid prosecutor and lead the case again. In his closing argument, he again laid out a terrifying scenario in which Prieto executed Fulton while the George Washington University baseball team captain was on his knees, then shot Raver as she ran through the darkness and raped her as she lay dying.

Defense attorney Peter D. Greenspun pointed out that although semen at the scene indicated Prieto's involvement, there were no witnesses tying his client to the shootings, no murder weapon, no admissions by Prieto and no evidence that he pulled the trigger. Greenspun noted that two hairs found on Raver were adjudged "Negroid" by a hair examiner in 1988 and that Prieto, a native of El Salvador, has hair classified "Mongoloid-Caucasian."

Horan, in what is probably his final trial, implored the jury to "follow the law and the evidence and give justice to these two dead young people, who didn't have to die except for the defendant in this courtroom, Alfredo Prieto."

There will be no separate phase in the trial to determine whether Prieto is retarded, as there was last year. Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows has instructed the defense to offer that evidence during the penalty phase, in which prosecutors will attempt to convince the jury that Prieto's actions were so vile, and his future so potentially dangerous, that he must be put to death.