Richard Montano, who killed a woman he mistook for his former girlfriend and lit her on fire in her Falls Church apartment, is sentenced to prison for murder.
A Virginia man was sentenced Friday to two consecutive life terms for killing a woman whom authorities say he had mistaken for a former girlfriend, stabbing her repeatedly and setting her on fire in a Fairfax County apartment.. Police said the woman had been temporarily staying with Montano’s ex-girlfriend, Fatima Via Rojas, in an apartment in the Seven Corners area of Falls Church. In Fairfax Circuit Court, Chief Judge Penney Azcarate gave Montano a life sentence for each count.
Security video played during the trial showed a man walking in and out of Via Rojas’s apartment seven times in the weeks leading up to the killing. On Aug. 10, a neighbor heard screams and banging from Via Rojas’s apartment and called 911. First responders arrived within minutes and found the apartment on fire, according to authorities.
Defense lawyer Mandy Petrocelli said Montano is not “irremediable” or “entirely evil,” referring to letters written to the court by his loved ones. She asked Azcarate to give him a sentence within the guidelines, arguing the sentence should “put his worst days in context” with other aspects of his life.