Oak Hill man sentenced to 40 years for murder
Death was result of abusive relationship, woman's parents sayby Gregg MacDonald |
http://ww2.fairfaxtimes.com/cms/story.php?id=2399
This story was updated on Oct. 27 to clarify Lee Wiggins' eligibility for parole. In 1995, Virginia discontinued parole for offenders convicted after that time. However, parole still is available to inmates sentenced prior to the policy change.
Oak Hill resident Lee Wiggins, 19, has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Siobhan Russell, at his grandfather's house in Fox Mill Estates on Easter Sunday in 2009.
Russell, 19 at the time of her death, had graduated from Mountain View Alternative High School a little more than two months before her murder. She lived with her parents in the nearby Franklin Farm neighborhood.
During her graduation speech, which was videotaped and played at Wiggins' sentencing, she said
she was "looking forward to the great wide world ahead of me."
Russell had been an honor student at Chantilly High School but dropped out in 2007.
Her parents now say they didn't realize the extent of the emotional problems she was going through at that time. They say difficulties in her relationship with Wiggins caused her grades to plummet, for her to become isolated from family and friends, and eventually to drop out of high school just months before graduating.
After Russell's death, her parents said they discovered disturbing text messages between Russell and Wiggins that opened their eyes to the level of emotional distress she was experiencing.
"He threatened to put a bomb in her car," said her father, Andrew Russell.
"Following a revelation on a beach one day, [Siobhan] began putting her life back together, went back to school and graduated," said her mother, Lynne Russell.
According to her mother, Russell went to visit Wiggins on Easter in 2009, unaware she would not leave alive.
According to court documents and testimony, the two argued and then violence ensued. An autopsy showed Russell was strangled and then stabbed with a knife that penetrated her heart. Wiggins pleaded guilty to her murder in May.
At the time, Wiggins was 17 but Virginia law states juveniles older than 14 who are charged with murder must be tried as an adult. Unlike adults however, sentencing in such a case is decided by a judge and not by a jury.
On Friday, Fairfax County Circuit Court judge David S. Schell heard tearful testimony from Russell's parents and Wiggins, before handing down his sentence.
"I sit here today in a place that no dad should ever sit in," said Andrew Russell, wearing a button adorned with his daughter's high school graduation photo, as he spoke in court.
"Oct. 16 would have been Siobhan's 21st birthday, but there was no celebration, only the realization that there will never be any more birthday celebrations ... she was brutally murdered and there will never be any closure, nor any fading of that fact. It will be with me until the day I die," he said.
"I am haunted by the image of a knife in [Siobhan's] heart and the incredible pain she must have suffered in her last moments," Lynne Russell said. "I no longer fear death myself. I fear the loneliness and emptiness that my life will now encompass without my daughter."
Clinical psychologist Dr. Michael L. Hendricks testified that Wiggins has gone through a series of hardships in his life and suffers from borderline personality disorder, major depression with psychotic features, malingering and Intermittent Explosive Disorder.
"Lee has some pretty serious problems," he said.
"Is Lee treatable?" asked defense attorney Karin Kissiah. "Yes, but it won't be easy," Hendricks responded.
"He is not the victim," countered prosecuting attorney Gregory O. Holt. "The victim in this case cannot be here today."
"I am so, so sorry," Wiggins said on his own behalf. "Every day I wish I could give my life to bring her back. I loved her and I still do. This is my punishment for the crime I committed and I accept it willingly."
Before imposing his sentence, Schell cited that death by strangulation takes a significant amount of time.
"The death of the victim could have been avoided by simply stopping the strangulation in this case," he observed. He also noted the knife that finally killed Russell was kept close at hand.
Schell sentenced Wiggins to the maximum sentence; 40 years in a penitentiary with three years of supervised release.
After sentencing, members in the courtroom on both sides burst into tears.
"There is no closure but there is a sense that justice has been done in this case," Andrew Russell said afterwards.