A jury in DC Superior Court convicted a man of second-degree murder on December 10th in the brutal beating and stabbing deaths of Chevy Chase couple Virginia and Michael Spevak. Twenty-two-year-old Jose Portillo was accused along with two accomplices of forcing his way into the Spevak home in November of 2008, burglarizing the residence, fatally attacking the couple and leaving them to die of their wounds.
The two other defendants in the case, twenty-two-year-old Peiro Fuentes Hernandez and Angela Hernandez, age unavailable, pled guilty last year, also to second-degree murder. The two are not related, and are awaiting sentencing for those convictions. All three are to be sentenced in 2011 by Judge Michael L. Rankin. At Portillo's trial, Fuentes Hernandez testified that the trio targeted the Spevak home because Angela Hernandez was a childhood friend of a foster child of the Spevaks. The couple was known for taking in foster children and as being generous and kind to their Northwest Washington neighbors. US Attorney Ronald Machen commented on community reaction to the killings in a statement on December 10th after Portillo was sentenced:
"The entire community was outraged by the senseless murders of this loving and generous couple. We can only hope that the convictions of the three people responsible for this tragedy bring some measure of comfort to the many people who benefited from the Spevaks' good works."
Portillo's court-appointed Washington DC criminal attorneys denied that their client was a participant in the murders, and contended that Fuentes Hernandez and Angela Hernandez killed the Spevaks, forcing Virginia Spevak to produce valuable items in the home before binding the couple with phone cords and brutally beating and knifing them. Portillo was originally charged with first-degree murder, in addition to more than a dozen related counts. Portillo's sentencing, along with that of the two other defendants, is scheduled for March. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
This blog post was provided by Price Benowitz LLP. With offices in Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia, the attorneys at Price Benowitz LLP represent clients in DUI, criminal, immigration, and personal injury cases. For more information, please visit the Washington DC Immigration Lawyer and DC Personal Injury Lawyer websites.
The two other defendants in the case, twenty-two-year-old Peiro Fuentes Hernandez and Angela Hernandez, age unavailable, pled guilty last year, also to second-degree murder. The two are not related, and are awaiting sentencing for those convictions. All three are to be sentenced in 2011 by Judge Michael L. Rankin. At Portillo's trial, Fuentes Hernandez testified that the trio targeted the Spevak home because Angela Hernandez was a childhood friend of a foster child of the Spevaks. The couple was known for taking in foster children and as being generous and kind to their Northwest Washington neighbors. US Attorney Ronald Machen commented on community reaction to the killings in a statement on December 10th after Portillo was sentenced:
"The entire community was outraged by the senseless murders of this loving and generous couple. We can only hope that the convictions of the three people responsible for this tragedy bring some measure of comfort to the many people who benefited from the Spevaks' good works."
Portillo's court-appointed Washington DC criminal attorneys denied that their client was a participant in the murders, and contended that Fuentes Hernandez and Angela Hernandez killed the Spevaks, forcing Virginia Spevak to produce valuable items in the home before binding the couple with phone cords and brutally beating and knifing them. Portillo was originally charged with first-degree murder, in addition to more than a dozen related counts. Portillo's sentencing, along with that of the two other defendants, is scheduled for March. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
This blog post was provided by Price Benowitz LLP. With offices in Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia, the attorneys at Price Benowitz LLP represent clients in DUI, criminal, immigration, and personal injury cases. For more information, please visit the Washington DC Immigration Lawyer and DC Personal Injury Lawyer websites.
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