A Fairfax County judge imposed the death penalty on a Falls Church man convicted of beating a woman to death with a hammer.
Judge Jonathan Thatcher agreed with a jury’s recommendation that 45-year-old Mark E. Lawlor should be sentenced to death.
A jury convicted Lawlor on capital murder charges for bludgeoning 29-year-old Genevieve Orange, who went by “Gini,” to death in September 2008.
Ray Morrogh, the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney, said he was satisfied the judge followed the jury’s recommendation.
“It’s not a happy day by any stretch of the imagination,” he said. “We feel that justice was brought to Gini Orange and her family.”
Death penalty sentences receive automatic appeals. Thomas Walsh, an attorney for Lawlor, said a life sentence would have been appropriate.
“We’re disappointed in the final sentence by the court,” Walsh said. “We feel that Mr. Lawlor has demonstrated that he would not be a risk for the sentence of life in prison without the chance of parole.
Orange was found dead in her apartment on the 6100 block of Leesburg Pike on Sept. 25, 2008, when officers were called to the apartment to check on her, according to Fairfax County police.
Prosecutors have argued that the killing was deliberate; the defense contended that Lawlor was too drunk and high to commit a premeditated murder.
“It wasn’t like Mr. Lawlor was lying in a trunk shooting people cold sober,” Walsh said, referencing the 2002 D.C.-area sniper shootings. One man convicted in that case was executed; the other sentenced to life in prison.
