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An Innocent Man on Virginia’s Death Row?

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By Drew Lindsay   Published Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Comments

Sorry to post a comment back to back but WTF is going on in our scocity today? Everytime I feel passion for someone or something that I see on the news or otherwise and want to post a comment about it all I read is "If this were a black person" I am a bi-racial female born in 1978 not a good time for couples to be mixing together and I was raised by my mother who is white and she married a man that was white when I was 5 yrs. old. I am so sick and tired of blacks talking shit about white people I live in the burbs. and am proud of it and proud to be black and educated! I think that only uneducated black people should not be allowed to post comments because all they want to say is "poor me" this blog is not about you and your sorry ass it is about Justin Wolfe and the raw deal he got! Peroid! So if you have issues because your parents kept you in the getto and you couldn’t get off you butt and get out then get a journal and stop wasting everyones time with your self pitty!!!!

Posted by: Elizabeth, Jun 21, 2010 11:44:18 AM

I just became aware of the situation of Justin Wolfe on a show that aired on June 20 2010 on Investigation ID. What an outrage!! I feel that Justin Wolfe is an innocent man!! I have since read different things on the internet, and have come to the conclusion that the jury were idots! I feel so sorry for him and his family. I am however excited that they will reexamine the facts of this case. How on earth can you give him the death penealty when he did not pull the trigger. This morning I looked at my own phone records on-line and my mother and I talk a lot and being older women we forget to say things and then call each other right back some of the calls last anywhere from 1 min to 20 mins and some are back to back. What does that prove? NOTHING. To comvicd someone based on phone records is a scary thing because truth be told anyone of us could be in danger of being sent to prison or even being put to death, as I am sure that my mother and I arent the only ones that call our friends and family members back to back. Another thing that was brought into evidence was an "Owe list" and had initials and dollar amounts next to them. "JW’ I sat awake last night after the show ended and thought of at least 7 people that "I" know with those initals my mother, my nephew, my neice, my, and my own daughter, just to name a few. If they had looked in the phone book they probally could have found more than 100 people in just that area with those initals, even in Dan Patroli’s cell phone. I hope that Justin is redeemed soon. I feel so bad for his family. I just wish that I had been on the jury, I would have said not guilty and held in till the end. I will be praying for Justin and his family.

Posted by: Elizabeth, Jun 21, 2010 11:25:29 AM

If you read the affidavit by Owen Barber he gives a vague explanation but an explanation none the less as to the phone calls...... I think this case is an example of how the American justice system looks the other way after compelling evidence (that could possibly exonerate someone) is brought in after convictions are made. I find that prosecutors are too proud to actually admit that they are WRONG.... I hate it how the wolfe family has to work so hard just to prove this very obvious point... I keep Justin Wolfe in my prayers and hope that his new trial cumulates in a success .....

Posted by: andrew Borne, Jun 10, 2010 05:42:51 AM

I’m sorry for his mother. I am a Investigator and in my opinion Justin "acts" as a guilty person would when they are interviewing him. However, that is how I see it. Looking at the evidence on this case everything points to Justin being guilty. Those calls and the letter put the nail in the coffin. I don’t personally believe in the death penalty so, I feel for his family. However, there is a guy dead for no apparant reason but drugs - they lived the "so called" good lives prior to selling drugs and I can’t help but feel that this who situation is crazy and stupid....some people who do these things you can kinda see why but these boys did not have to scape and struggle to get money - very stupid decisions were made from the beginning

Posted by: Cynthia, Feb 20, 2010 01:22:04 PM

I know they have those phone records but Owen could have been calling Justin at those times engaging in idle conversation. Knowing all along that those records would be used in court. It would be easy for someone to call someone and say "call me back in a second". Then turn around and say looki there I talked to him all night. They could have talked about anything. Justin having no idea he was being set up. Not all ciminals are stupid and don’t plan ahead. And why would Justin get rid of his way of profit? Drug dealers ALWAYS owe each other money. It’s the name of the game.

Posted by: travis in wv, Feb 15, 2010 04:03:30 PM

whats going on with the case now? this case wasn’t about race but how much attention would the case receive if it were black men involved??? 2 15 10

Posted by: jake, Feb 15, 2010 03:25:16 AM

Saw the show last night on ID...this is appauling at best. Neither the prosecutor nor the defense attorney appear to be competent. The prosecutor held OWen for two weeks threatened him with the death penalty and bullied Owen into testifying against Justin. He has also misguided the jury... the defense attorney hasn’t done a thing about it! HE didn’t put on enough of a defense to hold a bar license.
While I do not think Justin is innocent of a conspiracy, to what exent he was involved cannot be known and thus he should not receive the death penalty.
As for the jury, shame on you for giving the death penalty on circumstancial evidence. I am a death penalty advocate, but your reasoning is unfounded. There is reasonable doubt in virtually every case, even those which include DNA, eye witnesses and other more reliable evidence. From the information the programme provided, you had plenty of reasonable doubt. His possible death is on your heads, his bood is on your hands.
This case has been mishandled from the start; it should be thrown out and retried with NEW counsel.

Posted by: onecoachgirl, Feb 12, 2010 07:04:11 AM

First off; where were law enforcement officers and detectives as this ring grew out of control. Secondly, was there any data or information to suggest Justin had made contact with the Seattle supplier or any other new supplier. Where I come from, you don’t rub out your source until you have a new one. Especially when there is good data: " the owe sheet" that suggests nothing more than a working business relationship.

Posted by: Rich, Jan 31, 2010 05:26:37 AM

I believe he is innocent. He is just a kid and obviously has made some past mistakes but the story just doesn’t make sense what Owen Barber had to say.Justice will happen for Justin and he will be brought home to his family. It’s very unfortunate that Danny Pertrole can’t do the same,but the situation being,it should be Owen who has to answer to that.

Posted by: Justice4Justin, Jan 19, 2010 06:12:34 PM

He’s just a cocky spoiled little rich kid who thinks he’s a badass until getting railed in the dumper in prison.

Posted by: heh, Jan 18, 2010 05:03:49 PM

tjwise WISE UP quit puttin race into everything!!!!
Heck this involved all White

IT WAS ALL HUMAN BEINGS! that changed the lives of SO many people they didn’t even realize what could happen when others start owing that kind of $$$ especially teenagers

Posted by: norm h, Jan 18, 2010 03:14:35 PM

All you have to do is look in the eyes of Owen each time he tells a lie his eyes look away and down left This is a classic tell when lying. Owens motive is to get him out of his dept with Justin, he figured if Justin’s dept was whiped out
with Danny, his (Owens’) could be whiped away with Justin. This simple calling of Justin back and forth, unless there is recordings of what was actually discussed, is a set up to have Justin provide cash to him. Justin wasn’t in control of the timeline of Owens calls to him. Those calls were actually from the murderer p;acing him at the location. Owen probably felt he could do business with Danny gone. I don’t believe Justin is lying at all about the murder!

Posted by: norm h, Jan 18, 2010 03:08:36 PM

I would not believe any of them, including Justin. I feel great sympathy for his Mother, however, she did not know he was so heavily involved in drugs, she is not to blame, our kids can become experts at hiding things. I definitely think Justin deserves prison time, think all the evidence however, "reasonable doubt" with his involvement in the actual murder. I really want people to look at the case of Ryan Ferguson, accused of murdering a man based on outrageous testimony by his friend from a dream. Anyone that reads that case should clearly see an innocent young man sitting in prison for no reason!

Posted by: Jan Davis, Dec 06, 2009 08:32:34 AM

To Gia...Obviously you do not know much about the law or the legal system. Get educated in these areas and then come back here and argue your point.

Posted by: be_reasonable, Nov 30, 2009 03:35:10 PM

All of these kids got in over their heads. Admittedly, Owen was the shooter, but Justin did play a part in it. Justin really needs to explain the cell phone calls that he received right before and right after the murder. He did not have anything to say at his trial regarding the calls.

Posted by: wondering, Nov 30, 2009 03:32:13 PM

Poor little rich boy. He is just a punk. None of these guys can settle a problem with their hands anymore( because they are not really men) so they use a gun. Fry his wimp ass allready.
Good riddens to bad rubbish

Posted by: Jim, Nov 30, 2009 09:22:04 AM

Owen admitted to killing Danny. Everyone involed was selling pot. That is an admitted fact. Owen - in exchange for NOT getting the death penalty - testified against Justin. NO criminal should be allowed to tell the cops ’what they want to hear’ in order to save their own ass. If Owen isn’t on death row - Justin should NOT be. It’s as simple as that.

Posted by: dd, Jul 24, 2009 08:13:15 PM

whats with the immediate jump to "white people from the burbs" bs that some of you are saying in your comments. duh it makes sense that people from the suburbs care about whats going on in the suburbs. if i lived in anacostia i would be interested it whats going on in anacostia. this has nothing to do with black or white but with a badly investigated, badly defended, badly prosecuted death penalty case. if you want people to care about inner city stuff why dont you get off your ass and do something about it. instead of blaming white people for being interested in white people why dont you get your ass to school and do something more productive than bitch about racism on a message board. why dont you start with finding a black man that looks innocent on death row and seeing if the washingtonian will do an article on him. goodluck.

Posted by: ummmmm, Jul 06, 2009 11:09:00 AM

THIS MAN IS INNOCENT. Anyone who does not know this and is stuck on there little world of good and bad can go back to their TV sets and watch FOX 5. It is very easy to set someone up and for law inforcement to fail at doing what called justice. It is scary to know we live in a world with ignorant people like yourselves who make up their minds to put someone to death over misleading evidence. Just because a murderer calls someone before and after they kill someone doesn’t make the receiver of the calls a part of the murder.

How do you know that Owen wasn’t making sure that Justin would not be near Danny by calling him around the time of doing the crime? or that Owen was attempting to hook up with Justin for some weed, yet Justin was blowing Owen off and Owen decided to go to the source and rob him. Then as the police did their interrogation with Owen they practically created the story for Owen to take it and run as he was under pressure? These are very likely scenarios !

Inner city violence it a very different scenario by the way. It is much more diluted by many murders and other crimes that the attention is different. These are facts we are dealing with, not skin color !

Posted by: TO THE WITCH HUNTERS OF OUR TIME!, Jul 05, 2009 07:12:16 PM

A new round of white denial: Drugs, Race and Reality in the ’burbs
By Tim Wise
In a time of multiple school and workplace shootings, middle-aged mass murderers, drug-saturated rave parties, and moms who drown their kids in tubs, lakes, or dump them in garbage cans, one question comes to mind. How long will suburban white America get away with expressing shock at the criminal proclivities of its progeny, without media exposing their presumption of incorruptibility as fallacious and patently racist? Especially when government statistics indicate deviance and dysfunction are quite commonplace with such folks and in such places.

On Sunday, August 12, the front page of the Washington Post brought us yet another story about white suburban youth, who, to the amazement of their parents, friends, and the media, turn out to be stone cold criminals. This time the headlines emanate from "nice neighborhoods," in Northern Virginia: places where sinister crimes aren’t supposed to happen.

As authorities have discovered, one of the most significant drug operations in the region’s history was being run from this "nice, safe" place. And not by dark-skinned street-hustlers preying on vulnerable teens and getting them hooked; but rather, by the former soccer-playing little leaguers who this nation grooms to run major corporations, hold political office, or merely typifies as normal, all-American boys.

In this particular drama, one of the principal players, named (I kid you not) Owen Merton Barber IV, stands accused of murdering Daniel Petrole Jr., one of his drug-dealing colleagues at the behest of yet another fellow-dealer, Justin Michael Wolfe. Seem implausible? Surreal even? Thanks to well-worn stereotypes about drug users, dealers, and criminals in general, we’ve come to expect the bad guys to look like them - black and brown people, not those who are white like us. When we have to protect ourselves from folks with names like Owen Merton Barber the Fourth, well, what is the world coming to?

Actually, although underreported, drug data has long confirmed that the stereotypes of users and dealers (poor, black or Latino, and urban-dwelling) are not only racist, but also wrong.
According to the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Department of Health and Human Services, whites are equally or more likely to use drugs than their African American counterparts, despite common misperceptions to the contrary.

Although blacks and Hispanics tend to try drugs for the first time at a slightly younger age than whites, by the end of high school, whites have caught up and surpassed them in every drug category. White seniors are a third more likely to have smoked pot in the past year, seven times more likely to have used cocaine, three times more likely to have used heroin, and nine times more likely to have used LSD. And it’s not just that there are more white users, as this would reflect mere population percentages, but rather, that the white rate of use is that much higher than the rate for blacks.

It’s the same story for young adults. Whites are 66% of 18-25 year olds, but 70% of drug users that age. Blacks are 13.5% of persons in that age cohort, but only 13% of young adult users, while Hispanics are nearly 15% of that age group, but only 12% of drug users 18-25.
When it comes to drug dealing, the picture changes only slightly. According to the Justice Department, drug users tend to buy from same-race dealers. So the nearly three-quarters of users who are white, mainly rely on white dope peddlers, not the Jamaicans or Dominicans of popular imagery. When it comes to drugs like ecstasy-a hot product for the Virginia cartel-the dealers and users have long been known to be mostly white, middle class males between 14 and 32.

One would know none of these things from reading the Post story on the recently uncovered suburban Drug Empire, or drug related articles in any other nationally prominent paper. Instead, white suburban dealers and users are presented as exceptions to an otherwise law-abiding rule.

In the instant case, the accused, from the Prince William County hamlets of Chantilly and Centreville are youths that reporter Josh White describes as "good kids," who "went bad." When was the last time a black or Latino drug dealer or gang-banger was described this way? To those who study media, implicit in most news coverage when they do it is the suggestion that it’s because they were congenital criminals; it was their IQ or pathological underclass families. They don’t "go" bad; they just are bad.

However, when stories are written about pale-faced killers or dealers, or in this case both, sympathetic adjectives fill the pages. Crime becomes human interest-a cautionary tale. We are encouraged to identify with the instigators of the mayhem in ways we never would be were they dark or poor.

For example, Kip Kinkel, 1998’s poster boy for school shootings, was likened in the major media to MAD Magazine’s Alfred E. Newman: freckle-faced, and the "boy next door." Similar descriptions were offered for the school shooters in Arkansas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. Even Columbine shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, described by classmates as "dark and brooding," were still referred to by many as "basically normal," and gave off no warning signs in the eyes of Littleton families, teachers, or law enforcement. Andrea Yates, the Houston suburban mom who killed her five kids in their bathtub was described by one major newsmagazine as having "loved her children too much," and having been "overwhelmed" by the responsibilities of keeping hearth and home together.

Listen to those quoted in White’s story. First there is Prince William Detective Greg Pass who explains, "None of this happened in bad neighborhoods. It bothers everyone involved that in many ways these kids are mirror images of the detectives working the case, except they have chosen to go the wrong way." Sympathy, recognition, identification, and all of it, by the officer’s admission, due to the fact that these kids are "mirror images" of the detectives themselves. What does one see in the mirror after all? One’s face: one’s white, middle class suburban face, to be precise.

Throughout the Post piece the ringleaders of this marijuana and ecstasy empire are described as kids who "went to church," "sold Christmas trees at the mall parking lot," were "polite, shy, friendly, non-threatening," "clean cut," "cautiously pensive," "kind and gentle," "fun-loving," "the class clown." The kind of boys "you’d want your daughter to date," and who have been known to nurse sick birds back to health, "romp down the soccer field," and whose hooliganism was limited to writing their names in wet cement.

The alleged shooter "relished fishing with his father along the Virginia coast, where the two would exchange high fives when reeling in a catch." Barber’s father-that’s Owen Merton the third for those keeping count-insists the family was solid and led a "normal life." Forced to contemplate what went wrong with his fishing buddy, he speculates that perhaps watching his mother die of cancer convinced his son "life wasn’t important anymore." Again, sympathy conjured up for the wayward white youth in ways that would be highly unlikely for an inner-city kid: even one who had watched his mom die of cancer, as many have, or perhaps had friends who had been killed or jailed.

The young man accused of ordering the hit on Petrole is described as a "role model for his brother and sister," a "religious Catholic" who is intensely "spiritual." For his part, Justin Wolfe is presented as a helpful son, who assisted his single mom in caring for his younger siblings. When was the last time the child of a black, inner-city single mom was applauded for helping out around the house?

Throughout the story we learn that the parents of these budding gangsters never suspected anything, even as their early-20’s offspring jet-setted to Hawaii or Atlantic City, and bought $200,000 townhouses with their own money. As an additional sign of the times and the stupendous denial that afflicts so many white upper-middle class families, Petrole’s father actually believed that his son was able to buy his own home because he had been lucky dabbling in the stock market. After all, said Petrole Sr., his boy always wanted to be an entrepreneur. As indeed he was. So should we now expect national condemnation of the culture of affluence and the capitalist emphasis on moneymaking as being implicated in these crimes? Don’t count on it. That kind of analysis we reserve for the "underclass" values of ghetto-dwellers.

As evidence of how strong the stereotypes are, consider that Justin Wolfe, at the height of his criminal activity, dated the daughter of the director for the DC regional office of the Drug Enforcement Administration and aroused no suspicions whatsoever. The agent, having no doubt memorized the darker profile of a drug dealer used by law enforcement, naturally had no clue. Wolfe, according to DEA agent Frank Chellino seemed "well-mannered" and "stable."

Perhaps white folks in the ’burbs need to stop listening to the voices of officialdom or the media, and start listening to the only folks who seem to know the score: the dealers themselves. As one associate of the accused explained: "American society doesn’t want to face the fact that white kids deal and use drugs. They simply can’t look in my face and see that a nice-looking white kid is selling drugs to their kids, because that would mean that their kids could do this too. The fact is, we do sell drugs to their kids, in their rich neighborhoods and in their rich schools."

Just as the media generally "deracializes" incidents of white deviance, portraying them as the aberrant, inexplicable acts of aberrant, inexplicable individuals, (unlike the same from the dark and poor which are often portrayed as group tendencies), so too did Josh White in his Post piece on Wolfe, Barber and Petrole. Instead of pointing out the fallacies of white suburban denial and the blindness that besets so many of the residents in these "nice" places, White and the Post offered up a quixotic melodrama: good kids gone wrong; sympathetic, misguided youths posing as hardened criminals and coming to a tragic end.

Powerful to be sure, but far too narrow a truth, lacking as it did the contextual information necessary to understand the common phenomenon of white substance abuse. Unfortunately, facts unspoken or unreported tend to remain hidden. The debilitating stereotypes they might unravel remain firmly in place. Those who have convinced themselves that it couldn’t happen here remain in danger.

Tim Wise is a Nashville-based writer, lecturer and antiracism activist. He can be reached at tjwise@mindspring.com. Footnotes for this article can be obtained from that same email address.

Posted by: bravo!, May 26, 2009 10:40:28 AM

THANK YOU MICHAEL A!
these people are so full of crap!
he needs to be held responsible for his actions! I’m wondering if they would care so much or protest so much the verdict if he were a black kid from the inner city, the problem with the readers here is he doesn’t "LOOK" like a murderer.

Posted by: THANK YOU MICHAEL A!, May 26, 2009 10:12:37 AM

I have the show on ID twice which prompted me to read many articles regarding the case. As a daughter of a major city Police Chief, I am disgusted at the way this case was handled. Whatever happened to "beyond reasonable doubt"? There was nothing that I could see nor read that would suggest there was significant evidence to actually prove Justin Wolfe was involved. This kid was not given the right to a fair trial period. It makes me sick that our appellate and judicial system can not see past this garbage. If you look at Owen’s body language during the trial you can see without a doubt that he is lying. And not once, but through out his entire testimony! I would really like to know what information during this trial gave the jurors solid concrete evidence that Wolfe was involved? Everything they heard was based on assumptions, lies, and deception. Good luck Justin. You will get released soon. I know it...

Posted by: Gia, May 25, 2009 05:40:18 PM

I am repulsed that our justice /legal system allowed a confessed murderer (Barber)to avoid the death penalty by implicating Wolfe. His premeditated act sent 9 of 10 bullets into the victim, yet he was rewarded with immunity. That Barber could save his own life at the cost of Wolfe’s screams injustice. Putting Wolfe to death by lethal injection won’t serve society; it won’t trigger a come to Jesus among young drug-dealing men. Life will go on, most especially Brewer’s. If the state kills Wolfe, it will have knowingly shred the life of Wolfe’s family and destroyed any opportunity for Wolfe to become a redemption story and spend his life (in prison) paying a constructive debt to society.

Posted by: KBS, May 25, 2009 12:37:03 AM

i just saw the show and i looked up the web page...im very excited for you that they are going to reexamine the case!! how in the world could they deny it? there is a man’s life at stake. i read the barber recant...it is not hard to realize that he is finally telling the truth. good luck ill check back to see what unfolds.

Posted by: kimmy , May 24, 2009 05:53:07 PM

What about the cell phone calls directly before and after the murder ? Coincidence ?

Posted by: Michael A, May 24, 2009 04:12:29 PM

With any luck, the 4th Circuit’s decision will lead to a complete reexamination of the evidence presented to the jury along with the prosecutor’s role in acquiring and presenting it.

Posted by: Pat H, May 12, 2009 01:40:58 PM

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