Millionaire Boys' II: A Dealer On Trial

On the day Petrole was murdered, Wolfe set up a drug deal with him.

According to investigators, Wolfe owed Petrole almost $70,000, a drug debt that they say he did not want to pay. And Barber says for a total of about $20,000 in money and drugs, he made a deal with Wolfe to kill Danny Petrole. On March 15, after a routine Petrole-to-Wolfe drug buy, Barber began tailing Petrole.

"Owen Barber would never have killed Danny Petrole unless Justin Wolfe wanted him to," says prosecutor Rick Conway. Wolfe says he is innocent: "I've never hurt anybody a day in my life," he insists. His mother, Terri Steinberg, says her son is incapable of any violence.

Justin's trial began on Jan. 7, 2002. At the trial, prosecutors introduced cell-phone records from the night of the murder. Owen Barber testified that he followed Petrole for more than an hour, calling Wolfe to give him updates throughout the pursuit. Wolfe was the last person Barber called before he killed Petrole, and the first after the shooting.

"And then," says Conway, "you do not see any more phone calls from Wolfe's phone to Barber's phone."

Within days of the murder, Barber left town, ending up in San Diego. "And he never called me back, and he didn't keep up his full end of the bargain," Barber said at the trial. Barber says that Wolfe never paid him for killing Petrole.

Pasquariello, Barber's girlfriend, drove to San Diego to be with him. They were running out of money, so she wrote a letter to a friend of Wolfe's. The letter asked Wolfe for money. Pasquariello and Barber say the money they asked for was the payment for the murder. Before Pasquariello could mail the letter, authorities arrested Barber in San Diego. He confessed and implicated Wolfe.

Barber plead guilty to first-degree murder, and was sentenced to 38 years in prison.

Wolfe says that Barber is lying to save himself from the death penalty. "I don't know why the man killed him," Wolfe says. His mother says that Barber turned on her son because Wolfe refused to help Barber in his time of need.

Wolfe says it wouldn't make sense for him to kill Petrole, because his supply of drugs would then disappear. "If Danny's gone, there's no more chronic in the area. I have no means of making money." He also points out that many people owed Petrole money. It was the nature of the business, he says.

Despite the risk of going up against tough prosecutors, Wolfe insisted on taking the stand to tell his side of the story. "I made a lot of mistakes in the past, but I didn't ever hurt nobody in my life- never," he told the jury.

But when confronted by the prosecution, he had a hard time explaining the numerous cell phone calls he exchanged with Barber on the night Petrole was murdered.

In a surprising move during closing arguments, the defense tried to point the finger at Wolfe's friend, 28-year-old Jason Coleman. Coleman lived with Owen Barber, and he sold Barber the gun used to shoot Petrole. It seemed to be a desperate move: "There's no evidence that he was actually involved in any way with that murder," says Ebert.

After three weeks of testimony, the jury deliberated for little more than an hour before finding Wolfe guilty of capital murder. "It just floored me," says Wolfe.

Jurors Myles Ganley, Patricia Grisham , and Tim Lukkarinen say they believed Barber's testimony over Wolfe's. Says Lukkarinen: "If it was Justin against Owen, who could you believe? They're both thugs, they're both liars involved with drugs, tied up in greed. But it was the other circumstantial evidence that just made his story fit."

Wolfe still insists he's innocent. He thinks that Coleman could have helped prove his innocence. Coleman, however, did not testify. Wolfe says that Coleman told him that Barber had told Coleman that he did the murder on his own.

Prosecutors say they heard a very different story from Coleman. Says Ebert: "(Coleman) was one of the first ones that indicated that Barber would never have done anything like this if it weren't the wishes of Justin Wolfe."

"What he has to say, I think, may depend on who's asking and when you ask," says Conway. Coleman seems to have dropped from sight.

At his sentencing hearing, Wolfe testified to try to save his life. But the jury gave him the death penalty. Since then, his mother has devoted herself full time to his appeal.

Although Wolfe still insists he's innocent, he now understands that his choices have led to enormous grief for his family.

What does he see when he looks in the mirror? "I don't know what happened. I don't know what happened. I just don't know."

Wolfe is now the youngest person on Virginia's death row. After his appeals are exhausted, he could die by lethal injection in seven years.

Regina Zeuner was charged with misdemeanor drug possession. Jennifer Pasquariello was charged as an accessory after the fact to murder. But, the charges against both of them were dropped when they agreed to testify against their friend, Wolfe.

Go back to Part 1, Millionaire Boys' Club