By Denise Dunbar | ddunbar@alextimes.com
Francis Deonte Rose, a 29-year-old Alexandria resident, was sentenced on Oct. 4 to 58 years of active incarceration after being convicted of two felony counts of aggravated murder, two felony counts of use of a firearm in the commission of murder, felony destruction of property and misdemeanor trespassing.
According to a release from the Alexandria Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, on July 16, 2022, Rose shot and killed two people without warning. The evidence presented in the matter established that Rose, “for reasons never discerned,” shot and killed two landscapers who were working in the 200 block of Century Drive in the West End of the city.
“The landscapers were innocent bystanders unknown to Rose and were simply working at their job when Rose approached them and executed them. He then fled into a nearby parking garage. Alexandria police established a perimeter and located Rose hiding inside of a nearby apartment that he had entered without permission. A bloody shirt and a firearm were located outside of the apartment. DNA connected both the shirt and the firearm to Rose. The blood on the shirt was identified as belonging to one of the victims,” the release stated.
Rose was sentenced to 58 years of active incarceration in the Department of Corrections, with additional prison time suspended upon the following conditions: his compliance with supervised probation for a period of five years upon his release from prison, his having no contact with the family of the victims and his uniform good behavior for the period of 10 years upon his release from prison.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter clarified via email that Rose will be required to serve at least 49 years of his sentence with no possibility of parole because aggravated murder is the strongest murder conviction in Virginia; it replaced capital murder when Virginia abolished the death penalty in March 2021.
Porter said Rose’s only chance at a reduced sentence would be for good behavior credits, which can only account for around 15% of the total sentence. Hence, Rose would be approximately 78 years old at his earliest release.
Porter’s office had argued for life in prison without the possibility of parole because of the heinousness of the crime, and in the release, Porter lamented the court’s decision to allow for any possibility of parole.
“While I understand the Court has a difficult duty in pronouncing sentence in a murder case, the Commonwealth is disappointed the Court did not impose the sentence for which the Commonwealth argued: life in prison without the possibility of parole,” the release stated. “Considering the defendant’s potential for rehabilitation is but one factor that should be weighed by the Court; another is the defendant’s extreme and unprovoked violence upon kind, innocent people. In my opinion, the defendant’s horrific actions in the case surely merited a life sentence.”
Porter told the Times that Virginia law does allow for geriatric early release at age 60 for first and second degree murder convictions if the criminal has served at least 10 years of their sentence. However, Porter said this part of the code does not apply in Rose’s case.
“… because it was an aggravated murder conviction … and therefore more serious than 1st degree, he is NOT eligible for geriatric parole,” Porter said in the emailed response.
According to the release, the defendant is incarcerated in the William G. Truesdale Alexandria Adult Detention Center pending his transfer to the Virginia Department of Corrections.