A man convicted of killing two GW students in 1988 was handed two death sentences Friday in Fairfax County, Va.
Alfredo R. Prieto, 44, was connected in 2005 to the murders of GW students Rachael Raver and her boyfriend Warren Fulton III through DNA evidence.
Prieto is now linked to a total of nine killings in about a two-year period in California and Virginia, according to The Washington Post. He had already been sentenced to death for a 1990 murder in California.
Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond Morrogh said Raver, a 1988 GW graduate, and Fulton, then a senior and baseball captain, were last seen Dec. 3, 1988. Raver, a native of Yorktown, N.Y., played Division I soccer all four years she spent at GW. She was living in Alexandria, Va., at the time, and Fulton lived in Vienna, Va. The couple, both 22, had dinner with Fulton’s parents, went to a Christmas party and then a D.C. bar that night, where they left after midnight. Their bodies were found two days later in an empty lot in Reston, Va. Both students had been shot. Raver was also raped.
The case was cold until 2005, when the DNA from the case was resubmitted and matched in a national database with Prieto’s. At the time, he was on California death row for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl.
Prieto was extradited to Virginia for the trial, and after a 2007 mistrial, Prieto was convicted and sentenced to death. A separate jury had to sentence Prieto last week because the Supreme Court of Virginia said a verdict form was unclear, according to the Associated Press.
Though the case is more than 20 years old, Senior Associate Athletic Director Mary Jo Warner knew the athletes.
“Rachel Raver and Warren Fulton were wonderful student-athletes who made a positive impact on GW,” Warner said. “Their promising lives were tragically cut short and they are greatly missed by their friends, teammates, alumni, faculty and staff.”
University spokeswoman Candace Smith said the tragedy affected the entire GW community.
“Our sympathy is with the families of Rachael Raver and Warren Fulton III, and we hope they feel that justice has been served,” Smith said.
