An Alexandria man was sentenced on Friday for the shooting deaths of two landscapers in 2022.
Francis Deonte Rose, 29, was sentenced to 58 years in a Virginia prison on Friday for the murders of Juan Carlos Anaya Hernandez, 24, and Adrian de Jesus Rivera Guzman, 48. Rivera Guzman was Hernandez’s stepfather.
Both the prosecutors and the victims’ families expressed their discontent with the sentence.
“While I understand the Court has a difficult duty in pronouncing sentence in a murder case, the Commonwealth is disappointed the Court did not impose the sentence for which the Commonwealth argued: life in prison without the possibility of parole,” Commonwealth Attorney Bryan Porter said.
“In my opinion, the defendant’s horrific actions in the case surely merited a life sentence,” Porter added.
On July 16, 2022, Guzman and Hernandez were working in the 200 block of Century Drive when
Rose walked over and executed both men. Alexandria police later located Rose hiding inside
a nearby apartment he had broken into.
A bloody shirt and a gun were found just outside of the apartment. DNA later connected both items to Rose, and the blood on the shirt belonged to one of the victims.
Rose didn’t know either of the victims, and authorities still haven’t discerned any motive for the murders.
The defendant was convicted in May 2024 on two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of the use of a firearm in the commission of murder, destruction of property and a misdemeanor charge of trespassing.
“I know that if he’s in prison, my son and husband, they won’t come back. They’re gone forever,” Laura Hernandez, the wife and mother of the victims, previously told The Washington Post. “And even if it’s hard for me to believe, that’s how things are. I accept it. But this man can’t get out. He can’t get out.”
At the time of the murders, Rose already faced previous charges in D.C. and Arlington for illegally possessing firearms.
Rose is incarcerated at the William G. Truesdale Alexandria Adult Detention Center while he awaits transfer to the Virginia Department of Corrections.
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