Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax Kills Wife, Then Himself, Weeks Before Court-Ordered Deadline to Leave Home
Fairfax, 47, shot his wife Cerina multiple times in the basement of their Annandale home while their two teenage children were inside. A judge had ordered him to move out by the end of April.
Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax shot and killed his wife Cerina Fairfax early Wednesday morning and then turned the gun on himself, Fairfax County police said, in a murder-suicide that unfolded while the couple's two teenage children were inside the home.
Officers responded to the 8100 block of Guinevere Drive in Annandale at approximately 12:12 a.m. on April 16 after the couple's teenage son called 911. They found both Cerina Fairfax, 49, and Justin Fairfax, 47, dead from gunshot wounds.
Police said Justin Fairfax shot his wife multiple times in the partially finished basement, then ran upstairs to the primary bedroom and killed himself with the same firearm. Cartridge casings and the weapon were recovered at the scene.
"A Fall From Grace"
Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said the shooting appeared to be spontaneous. The couple were separated but still living together during what Davis described as complicated divorce proceedings. A judge had ordered Justin Fairfax to vacate the family home by the end of April.
"It all happened pretty spontaneously," Davis told reporters. He called the case "extra tragic" because the children witnessed the violence.
"It's high profile in nature. It's tragic in nature, certainly a fall from grace for a relatively high-profile family that seemingly had a lot of things going in their favor," Davis said.
Police said Justin Fairfax had recently been served court paperwork related to the divorce that may have sparked the shooting.
The Fairfaxes
Justin and Cerina met at Duke University and married in 2006. She earned her Doctor of Dental Surgery from Virginia Commonwealth University and ran a family dentistry practice. She was involved in community outreach and, by multiple accounts, was devoted to their two children.
Justin Fairfax was a former federal prosecutor and civil litigator who graduated from Duke and Columbia Law School, where he was a member of the Columbia Law Review. In 2017, he became only the second Black Virginian elected to statewide office, after former Gov. Douglas Wilder.
Court records obtained by reporters revealed mounting tension in the marriage. Cerina testified that Justin drank daily and that his living space was littered with empty wine bottles and piles of dirty laundry. He had purchased the handgun used in the shooting in 2022, using money that had been intended for the children's horseback riding lessons, according to court filings.
A Political Rise and Fall
Fairfax served as Virginia's 41st lieutenant governor from 2018 to 2022. He was widely seen as a rising Democratic star until February 2019, when two women accused him of sexual assault -- one at Duke in 2000, the other in 2004. Fairfax denied the allegations, calling the encounters consensual, and refused calls from Virginia Democrats to resign. He was never criminally charged.
Rather than seek reelection as lieutenant governor, Fairfax ran for governor in 2021 and lost in the Democratic primary. He returned to private law practice after leaving office.
In January 2026, Cerina alleged that Justin had assaulted her, but police reviewed security camera footage and determined the alleged assault did not occur.
Victim specialists from the Fairfax County Police Department's Major Crimes Bureau were assigned to assist the family. The Chief Medical Examiner will conduct autopsies to confirm manner and cause of death.