Man who murdered a co-worker over a stolen lunch gets 100 years
Bazen Berhe was sentenced to 100 years for the 2021 murder of a co-worker, Hernan Leiva, in the parking lot of the Skyline Target in Bailey’s Crossroads, the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office announced Jan. 30.
At the sentencing hearing, Berhe, 25, of Alexandria, threatened to kill or hurt other people if he was not given the harshest possible sentence.
Judge Robert Smith of the Fairfax Circuit Court sentenced him to 100 years and suspended 30 years, so Berhe will spend 70 years behind bars.
Berhe claimed that Leiva, a 58-year-old janitor at Target, stole his lunch from the office fridge on April 14, 2021. Berhe then began planning the murder. The following day, he purchased a hammer and two knives from Target, and told detectives that he spent the following day “training for the murder.”
Related story: Family of homicide victim reaches out to the community
On April 17, Berhe arrived at the employee parking lot at 5115 Leesburg Pike and lay in wait for Leiva. When Leiva arrived for work at about 3:30 a.m., Berhe stabbed and bludgeoned him to death before fleeing.
Berhe confessed to the crime immediately and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in October 2023.
“Mr. Leiva’s unnecessary and tragic death leaves behind a grieving family and community, one that will never be the same after such a senseless act of violence,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano. “In this case, because of the unique and self-proclaimed danger the defendant continues to pose to the community, today’s sentence was a necessary outcome for maintaining public safety.”
Diversity is our strength
And race or ethnicity factors in to severe mental illness and the outcome how? Certainly not quantitatively. Considering the proportion of guns owned by and used to commit crimes by us “real Americans”, thank goodness it wasn’t one of us!
It’s important to support Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano’s actions in this case. This case demonstrates that he is willing to prosecute violent criminals and push for long prison sentences when doing so is necessary to protect public safety.
I for one will give Mr. Descano much more credit than I have in the past.
This Commonwealth Attorney has always prosecuted death cases (especially second guessing police, which should be reviewed but his bias is against police). Our current elected attorney does not prosecute crimes that impact general community welfare. This was probably one of the easiest crimes ever prosecuted with the confession. It would have been community malpractice and politically suicidal not to do this case. No credit deserved or earned by the Commonwealth Attorney in this case. He did the minimum required given the confession.
The perp wanted a long sentence …my dog could have prosecuted this case….