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Thread: Mark Eric Lawlor - Virginia

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    Mark Eric Lawlor - Virginia


    Genevieve Orange, 29




    Summary of Offense:

    Mark E. Lawlor was sentenced to death in Fairfax County for the 2008 capital murder and rape of Genevieve Orange, 29, who was sexually assaulted and beaten to death, suffering dozens of blows to her head.

    Lawlor was a leasing agent for her building at was then called the Prestwick Apartments near Seven Corners in Fairfax County. Orange was a 2001 graduate of Virginia Tech and an active churchgoer.

    Lawlor suffered from drug and alcohol problems. He had been convicted of abduction, unlawful entry and harassing communications in Fairfax County in 1999 and was given a net sentence of six years.

    On the evening of Sept. 24, 2008, Orange returned to her apartment from her job in Washington. Authorities believe she was on her couch watching television when Lawlor broke in and began beating her with a frying pan and hammer.

    He broke in using a key from the office and brought a hammer with him. DNA from semen found at the scene matched Lawlor’s. After he killed her he tried to clean up the evidence before he fled.

    A witness testified that Lawlor bought and smoked crack cocaine that day and was acting irrationally. Lawlor’s lawyers conceded he killed Orange but argued he was so high that he lacked the intent required to be convicted of capital murder.

    The jury, however, found him guilty of capital murder and he was sentenced to death.

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    Capital murder trial starts in Fairfax

    By Tom Jackman
    The Washington Post

    The trial of a Fairfax County man for the Sept. 2008 beating death of Genevieve "Gini" Orange inside her Falls Church-area apartment began Tuesday with jury selection.

    With prosecutors seeking the death penalty, the selection process is expected to last about two weeks.

    Orange, 29, was a popular member of McLean Bible Church who worked for the Futures Industry Association in Washington. When she didn't appear for work on Sept. 25, 2008, co-workers notified police, and officers found her lying in her living room. She had been beaten with more than 30 blows to the head, authorities said, and her attacker left semen and saliva on her body.

    Mark E. Lawlor, 45, worked as a leasing agent in the Prestwick Apartments on Leesburg Pike, where he and Orange both lived. Court records show his DNA matched that left at the scene, and that he previously served five years in prison for abducting his ex-girlfriend in Great Falls. He has been treated regularly for drug and alcohol abuse and mental health problems, court records show.

    Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh elected to seek the death penalty against Lawlor. He is trying the case himself along with Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Casey M. Lingan.

    Defense attorneys Mark Petrovich and Thomas Walsh were appointed to represent Lawlor, and Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Jonathan C. Thacher is presiding over the case.

    No one had received a death sentence in Fairfax County for 12 years before serial killer Alfredo Prieto, now suspected or convicted in nine homicides, was issued two death penalties by a Fairfax jury in November. Morrogh and Lingan prosecuted that case.

    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/cri...starts-in.html

    Death penalty trial to begin in Fairfax

    After more than three weeks of jury selection, opening statements are set for Wednesday morning in the capital murder trial of Mark E. Lawlor, who is accused of fatally beating Genevieve "Gini" Orange inside her Falls Church-area apartment in September 2008.

    Orange, 29, lived in the Prestwick Apartments on Leesburg Pike near Seven Corners. When she didn't appear for work at the Futures Industry Association in Washington, co-workers called police, who found her body.

    At a preliminary hearing in February 2009, Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh said Orange had suffered more than 30 blows to the head, and a crime scene detective testified that he found semen and saliva on her body. Court records show DNA from those fluids matched Lawlor, now 45, who worked as a leasing agent in the building.

    Lawlor has not raised insanity as a defense, though records show he has a history of mental disorders as well as drug and alcohol abuse. He served about five years in prison, from 1999 to 2004, for abducting a former girlfriend in Great Falls, and had been placed in the Prestwick as transitional housing while he rehabilitated after prison.

    The voir dire process, which is typically pretty quick in Fairfax, extended into a fourth week on Monday and concluded on Tuesday. Jurors were initially questioned about their availability for a 10-week case, and those who did not have a ready excuse were given a short questionnaire to fill out.

    In the second stage, jurors were questioned generally in groups of 20 about their knowledge of the case and experience with the justice system, as they would be in any criminal case. But a third stage, which launched last week, broke the potential jurors into groups of three, in which they were questioned more closely about their views on the death penalty and their willingness to impose it.

    Lawlor's trial is the second capital murder trial in five months in Fairfax -- serial killer Alfredo R. Prieto received a death sentence in November -- and both have been prosecuted by Morrogh and Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Casey M. Lingan.

    Lawlor's defenders are familiar to Morrogh: Mark J. Petrovich and Thomas B. Walsh, who opposed Morrogh and his former boss, Robert F. Horan Jr., in the trial of D.C. sniper Lee Boyd Malvo in 2003. Ed Ungvarsky and Meghan Shapiro from the Capital Public Defender's Office also are assisting the defense.

    Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Jonathan C. Thacher is presiding over Lawlor's trial. The trial is expected to last between two and six more weeks, depending on whether the jury convicts Lawlor of capital murder, and on the length of the sentencing hearings.

    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/cri...o-begin-i.html

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    Shocking admission at death penalty trial

    Defense attorneys for Mark Lawlor unloaded a bombshell in their opening statement Wednesday morning, when they admitted that Lawlor killed Gini Orange in her apartment building in 2008.

    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Lawlor, and Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh revealed that investigators believe Lawlor used a hammer to strike more than 30 blows to Orange, then sexually assaulted her.

    Then, defense attorney Mark J. Petrovich stood and told the jury, "There will be a sentencing phase with regard to this case...Mr. Lawlor was in Ms. Orange's apartment that evening that the commonwealth described. Mr. Lawlor was there. And it was Mr. Lawlor who took Ms. Orange's life."

    Petrovich said Lawlor was so high on crack cocaine, from a 12-hour binge, along with large amounts of beer, that he was heavily intoxicated. He said Lawlor was too high and drunk to have the necessary awareness and intent to commit capital murder, and therefore should not be subject to the death penalty.

    "Mr. Lawlor murdered Genevieve Orange," Petrovich said. "We'll ask you to find him guilty of 2nd-degree murder."

    Original post:

    After more than 3 weeks of jury selection, opening statements are set for Wednesday morning in the capital murder trial of Mark E. Lawlor, who is accused of fatally beating Genevieve "Gini" Orange inside her Falls Church-area apartment in September 2008.

    Orange, 29, lived in the Prestwick Apartments on Leesburg Pike near Seven Corners. When she didn't appear for work at the Futures Industry Association in Washington, co-workers called police, who found her body.

    At a preliminary hearing in February 2009, Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh said Orange had suffered more than 30 blows to the head, and a crime scene detective testified that he found semen and saliva on her body. Court records show DNA from those fluids matched Lawlor, now 45, who worked as a leasing agent in the building.

    Lawlor has not raised insanity as a defense, though records show he has a history of mental disorders as well as drug and alcohol abuse. He served about 5 years in prison, from 1999 to 2004, for abducting a former girlfriend in Great Falls, and had been placed in the Prestwick as transitional housing while he rehabilitated after prison.

    The voir dire process, which is typically pretty quick in Fairfax, extended into a fourth week on Monday and concluded on Tuesday. Jurors were initially questioned about their availability for a 10-week case, and those who did not have a ready excuse were given a short questionnaire to fill out.

    In the second stage, jurors were questioned generally in groups of 20 about their knowledge of the case and experience with the justice system, as they would be in any criminal case. But a third stage, which launched last week, broke the potential jurors into groups of 3, in which they were questioned more closely about their views on the death penalty and their willingness to impose it.

    Lawlor's trial is the 2nd capital murder trial in 5 months in Fairfax -- serial killer Alfredo R. Prieto received a death sentence in November -- and both have been prosecuted by Morrogh and Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Casey M. Lingan.

    Lawlor's defenders are familiar to Morrogh: Mark J. Petrovich and Thomas B. Walsh, who opposed Morrogh and his former boss, Robert F. Horan Jr., in the trial of D.C. sniper Lee Boyd Malvo in 2003. Ed Ungvarsky and Meghan Shapiro from the Capital Public Defender's Office also are assisting the defense.

    Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Jonathan C. Thacher is presiding over Lawlor's trial. The trial is expected to last between 2 and 6 more weeks, depending on whether the jury convicts Lawlor of capital murder, and on the length of the sentencing hearings.

    (Source: The Washington Post)

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    Fairfax jury starts capital murder deliberations

    A Fairfax County jury began its deliberations Thursday afternoon after hearing closing arguments in the capital murder trial of Mark E. Lawlor, accused of killing Genevieve Orange in her Falls Church area apartment in September 2008.

    The jury deliberated for a little more than two hours, then decided to go home for the day. Since the trial has been taking Fridays off, to allow both the jurors and Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Jonathan C. Thacher to attend to other business, the jury will now take a four-day break, with the President's Day holiday on Monday. Deliberations will resume Tuesday.

    Prosecutors allege that Lawlor, 45, a leasing agent at the Prestwick Apartments in the Seven Corners area, used a key to break into Orange's studio apartment, fatally beat her in the head with a hammer, and then sexually assaulted her.

    Semen was found on Orange's body and Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh said the DNA matched Lawlor. Morrogh decided in 2009 to seek the death penalty for Lawlor, who previously had served five years in prison for abducting an ex-girlfriend in Great Falls.

    Lawlor did not testify at the trial.

    In opening statements, Lawlor's attorneys admitted that Lawlor killed Orange, but argued that he was so high on crack cocaine and beer that he didn't have the willful intent to kill her. Defense attorney Mark J. Petrovich said the case qualified as second-degree murder.

    But in the defense's closing argument, lawyer Thomas B. Walsh said the case now qualified as first-degree murder. Walsh continued the argument that Lawlor was so intoxicated he didn't have the requisite intent for capital murder.

    Morrogh argued that Lawlor's actions showed that he was quite coherent, regardless of how much crack he had smoked. Morrogh pointed out that Lawlor obtained the key for Orange's apartment from the building's office; brought a hammer with him to the apartment; killed and raped Orange, then made efforts to clean up the evidence; left the building through a back door, stained with Orange's blood, rather than go through the lobby; disposed of the hammer and his bloody clothes; and returned the key to Orange's apartment.

    "This crime, far more than most," Morrogh said, "was very well planned out."

    If the jury convicts Lawlor of capital murder or first-degree murder, a sentencing phase will begin soon after. A conviction of capital murder would present the jury with a choice of a death sentence or life without parole. A first-degree conviction would give the jury a range from 20 years to life in prison.

    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/cri...apital-mu.html

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    Falls Church man convicted of capital murder; Va. jury to consider imposing death penalty

    FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A Fairfax County jury has convicted a Falls Church man of capital murder for the beating death and sexual assault of a woman who lived in the apartment complex where he worked.

    The jury will now decide whether to recommend a death sentence or life in prison for 45-year-old Mark Lawlor.

    At trial, Lawlor's attorneys admitted he killed 29-year-old Genevieve Orange in her Falls Church-area apartment back in 2008. But they said he was so high on crack cocaine that the murder wasn't premeditated.

    Prosecutor Ray Morrogh said Lawlor used a key from the apartment complex office to enter Orange's apartment, where he beat her with a frying pan and then a hammer and sexually assaulted her.

    http://www.wtkr.com/news/sns-ap-dc--...,7346214.story

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    Fairfax jury hears of victim's, killer's drastically different lives

    The first phase of Mark E. Lawlor's capital murder trial focused on the brutal crime itself, and a Fairfax County jury quickly convicted him.

    Now, with Lawlor's life in the balance, jurors began hearing Wednesday about the two radically different lives that intersected in a Falls Church area apartment on the night of the murder in September 2008: about the charmed childhood and wide-eyed innocence of Genevieve Orange and the horrific upbringing and previous crimes of the drug- and alcohol-addicted Lawlor.

    Orange's mother, Marilyn Orange, had several jurors in tears as she recalled her daughter's upbringing in the Roanoke area, accompanying her father to the golf course or pool hall, being spoiled by her grandparents. After graduating from Virginia Tech, Genevieve "Gini" Orange moved to Northern Virginia, got a good job, made lasting friends at church and found a place to live at the Prestwick Apartments in the Seven Corners area.

    "She was claiming her own life, her own career, her own place in the world," said her sister, Brenda Orange Luper, who helped Gini Orange move in to the Prestwick in 2003.

    It was at the Prestwick, where Lawlor worked as a leasing agent after his release from prison, that the 29-year-old Orange was attacked as she lay on her couch, sleeping. The medical examiner said Orange suffered 30 blows to the head, apparently from a claw hammer, and prosecutors said Lawlor raped Orange as she lay dying.

    DNA evidence from semen linked Lawlor to the crime, and Lawlor's lawyers conceded to the jury that he had killed Orange. The jury had only to decide whether Lawlor was guilty of first-degree murder, with a maximum penalty of life in prison, or capital murder, with the possibility of a death sentence. On Tuesday, the jurors chose capital murder, and now they must decide whether Lawlor should be executed.

    So Lawlor's defense team launched another effort to keep him from the death chamber, beginning with a summary of his traumatic life by Meghan Shapiro of the state's capital public defender office. Lawlor, 45, was born and raised in New Jersey, where his mother repeatedly beat and abused him, and his father regularly molested and raped Lawlor's sister, Shapiro said.

    The family was isolated from relatives, Shapiro said, and when Lawlor made a friend at summer camp, at age 13, he was raped by the friend. A year later, a neighbor began molesting him. At 16, when he tried to intervene as his father attacked his sister again, Shapiro said, Lawlor's father marched him out of the house with a loaded shotgun and ordered him not to return.

    By this time, Lawlor was drinking heavily and using drugs to ease the emotional pain, Shapiro said. He was taken in by a local restaurant owner, who fed and sheltered him and also molested him, Shapiro said.

    A probation officer in New Jersey paid for a bus ticket to ship Lawlor away from his misery. But in Virginia, at 18, he stole a car, got drunk with a friend and crashed the car, killing the friend, Shapiro said. Lawlor went to prison for the first time, and Shapiro said he was sober and cooperative there.

    "Society will be protected by putting this damaged man away in a place where he can't be a threat to anyone," Shapiro said. "It's not your job to balance Gini's life versus Mark's."

    After that jaw-dropping life story, the jury heard from a Great Falls woman who dated and broke up with Lawlor in 1998. Under questioning by prosecutors, she said Lawlor stalked her and slid under her garage door as she pulled in one night.

    The woman drove back out of the garage with Lawlor clinging to the hood. She said he kicked the windshield repeatedly until he made a hole through it, then reached in and grabbed her keys from the ignition.

    She said Lawlor yanked her out of the car, threw her into his car and drove her around Great Falls until she faked an asthma attack and he released her. He later was arrested and served five years in prison for abduction.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...022306088.html

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    Fairfax death penalty deliberations enter third day

    The Fairfax County jury trying to decide whether convicted killer Mark E. Lawlor should receive the death penalty or life in prison will begin a third day of deliberations Wednesday in the Fairfax courthouse.

    The jury convicted Lawlor, 45, of capital murder on Feb. 22, after Lawlor’s attorneys had conceded that he did fatally bludgeon and rape Genevieve “Gini” Orange, 29, inside her Falls Church-area apartment in September 2008.

    DNA evidence linked Lawlor to the slaying, in which prosecutors said Lawlor struck Orange 30 times in the head with a hammer, and 17 more times on her arms and body, before sexually assaulting her as she lay dying.

    Following the conviction, Fairfax prosecutors presented about a day of evidence to make their case that Orange’s murder was so vile, and Lawlor so dangerous, that he should be executed. Lawlor was previously convicted of abducting an ex-girlfriend in Great Falls, for which he served five years in prison, and also of crashing a car and killing a friend in the 1980s.

    Lawlor’s defense team then presented more than two weeks’ worth of witnesses who testified that Lawlor had a difficult upbringing, with an abusive mother and a pedophile father, but that he has been a relatively compliant prisoner during his years of incarceration. The defense is pleading for a life sentence without parole.

    “I ask you, I implore you, I beg of you, choose life,” capital public defender Ed Ungvarsky told the jury in his closing argument Monday. “Mark is more than the worst thing he’s ever done. I ask you to please recognize that.”

    Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh rejected the strategy of blaming Lawlor’s family, and reminded the jury of Orange’s brutal death. She had been sleeping on her couch, and Lawlor entered her apartment with a key because he was the leasing agent at the Prestwick Apartments on Leesburg Pike.

    “I listened in vain to the defendant’s case for three weeks,” Morrogh said, “for some evidence of remorse. Blaming others, pretending he didn’t know what happened, these are not the actions of a remorseful person. He’s sorry he got caught.

    “There’s a terrible tendency in these trials to forget about the victim,” Morrogh continued. Orange’s birthday was last week, he noted, and her mother “celebrated that birthday by attending her killer’s capital murder trial. In this case, the only fitting punishment is the death sentence.”

    The jury deliberated for about 90 minutes on Monday and tabout seven hours on Tuesday. They return Wednesday at 9:30 a.m.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...heNd_blog.html

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    Killer gets death sentence in Fairfax County

    A Fairfax County jury imposed the death penalty Wednesday on Mark Lawlor for killing a woman in her Falls Church apartment.

    Lawlor, 45, had been convicted of capital murder for bludgeoning 29-year-old Genevieve Orange, who went by "Gini," to death in September 2008.

    A judge will formally sentence Lawlor on June 9. He could accept the jury's sentence or reduce it to life in prison without parole.

    The case is the second recent death penalty verdict in Fairfax.

    In November, Alfredo Prieto was sentenced to death by a jury, and a judge imposed that sentence.

    No one had received the death penalty in Fairfax in the 12 years before that case.

    http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/...#ixzz1GoKFYayt

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    Sentencing rescheduled for June 23, 2011.

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    Death penalty for Va. man in woman’s killing

    A Fairfax County man who bludgeoned a woman with a hammer and raped her as she lay dying was sentenced to death Thursday.

    Circuit Court Judge Jonathan C. Thatcher imposed the sentence, which was recommended by a jury during a March hearing.

    The jury convicted Mark E. Lawlor, 46, of capitol murder in February. Prosecutors said Lawlor, then a leasing agent in a Falls Church area building, used a key to enter the apartment of Genevieve “Gini” Orange as she slept on a couch in September 2008.

    He hit her with a hammer nearly 50 times on her head, arms and body, according to an autopsy report, then raped her, leaving behind DNA that implicated him.

    Attorneys for Lawlor never disputed that he killed Orange. Instead, they argued that he was intoxicated by beer and crack cocaine and therefore wasn’t guilty of capitol murder.

    Orange, who was from the Roanoke area, graduated from Virginia Tech in 2001 and was an active member of the McLean Bible Church. Many of her friends, along with family members, attended about five weeks of trial and deliberations.

    Lawlor, a New Jersey native with a history of mental health, drug and alcohol problems, was a leasing agent in her building when he killed her.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...NWhH_blog.html

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