Kills wife, self in murder-suicide

Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax kills wife, self in murder-suicide, police say

Fairfax, a former federal prosecutor, was elected lieutenant governor in 2017, despite never previously having held public office.

By Gregory Svirnovskiy

Former Democratic Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and his wife, Cerina, were found dead in their Fairfax County home in an apparent murder-suicide, police said on Thursday.

“It’s high profile in nature, it’s tragic in nature, certainly a fall from grace for a relatively high-profile family that seemingly had a lot of things going in their favor,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis told reporters in a press conference.

Fairfax, Davis said, shot his wife “multiple times” in the basement of their home just after midnight, before firing a gun at himself in a room upstairs. One of the couple’s two teenage children alerted the police. The two were in the midst of divorce proceedings, Davis told reporters.

The two were pronounced dead on the scene when police arrived at their home, “within minutes of the 911 call,” Davis said.

Fairfax, a former federal prosecutor, was elected lieutenant governor in 2017, despite never previously having held public office. He served alongside Gov. Ralph Northam, also a Democrat.

But both Fairfax and Northam soon found themselves embroiled in scandal. In 2019, multiple women accused Fairfax of sexual assault, leading to calls from nearly the entire state’s congressional delegation and a variety of presidential candidates that he resign.

The accusations came as Northam also faced calls to leave office after he admitted to previously wearing blackface.

Fairfax denied the accusations, which came to light as conversation swirled around him potentially taking on the governor’s post.

“Does anybody think it’s any coincidence, that on the eve of potentially my being elevated, that that’s when this uncorroborated smear comes out?” he said in February 2019.

Despite the allegations, Fairfax ran for governor in 2021 and finished in a distant fourth in the Democratic primary. He left the state capital in January 2022 and started his own legal practice.