A Virginia man was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for killing a woman authorities said he mistook for an ex-girlfriend, so he repeatedly stabbed her and set fire to her Fairfax County apartment.
By opinion
Richard Montano, 48, was convicted in October of first-degree murder and arson for the Aug. 10, 2022, crime of Sylvia Waka Abake, 40.
Police said the woman was staying temporarily with Montano’s ex-girlfriend, Fatima Via Rojas, in an apartment in the Seven Corners area of Falls Church.
Prosecutors said Montano went to Via Rojas’ apartment, 2900 Willston Place, with the intention of killing him, not Vaca Abac. The two had a volatile and abusive relationship for nearly eight years before Via Rojas broke up with him for good a month before the attack.
After the breakup in July 2022, she texted him to leave him alone. According to Via Rojas’ testimony during the trial, Waka Abake accompanied him two days later.
“I feel guilty. “Part of me feels guilty because he came for me, not her, and she’s going to have to pay for what’s going to happen to me,” he lamented.
Vaca Abacay was the mother of a son and a daughter, who live in Bolivia, a country she left six years earlier in search of the American dream.
The defense asserts that Montano is not “totally evil.”
Security video played during the trial showed a man entering and leaving the Via Rojas apartment seven times in the week leading up to the murder.
On August 10, a neighbor heard screaming and banging at a Via Rojas apartment and called 911. According to officials, first responders arrived within minutes and the apartment was on fire. Investigators found Waka Abake’s charred body in a charred, blood-spattered room, prosecutors said.
“At some point, he may have realized he had the wrong person,” prosecutor Caitlin Morgan told the judge. “And yet he went on,” he added.
Prosecutor Steve Deskano said Waka Abake’s killing was an unnecessary and senseless death. “The extreme level of violence and complete disregard for human life displayed by Richard Montano is rarely seen in Fairfax County,” he said.
For her part, defense attorney Mandy Petrocelli said Montano is not “totally evil,” referring to letters written to the court by her loved ones.
Additionally, he asked Chief Judge Penny Ezcarate to sentence him within the guidelines, arguing that he should “put his worst days in context” with other aspects of his life.
Azkaret said the aggravating facts of the case showed “strong evidence of guilt”. He agreed with Petrocelli that a defendant’s sentence should not be based on a person’s worst days, but said he could not ignore the impact of their decisions.
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