Va. man charged in hammer death of wife was awaiting trial for domestic abuse

A Loudoun County, Virginia, man charged with using a hammer to kill his wife was awaiting trial for strangling her months earlier and was wearing a court-ordered GPS monitor when he killed her.

Charging documents allege Peter James Lollobrigido, 49, of Sterling, admitted to investigators he assaulted his estranged wife, Regina Redman-Lollobrigido, then retrieved a hammer from under the kitchen sink, and hit her in the head. She died a week later, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.

According to investigators, “Lollobrigido stated that he gave her a kiss, ‘looked her square in the eyes,’ and told her ‘I loved her,'” before striking her with the hammer.

Asked if his wife was still alive when he called 911, he said he didn’t know, then, “don’t see how she could be.”

On the day he allegedly killed his wife, Lollobrigido was under an active protective order, and wearing an ankle monitor for allegedly abducting, strangling and assaulting Redman-Lollobrigido in July 2021.

Court documents from July filed in Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court said she “had visible discoloration of skin and markings on her forehead, left cheek/ear area, neck, chest, both upper arms, right elbow, both forearms, both wrists and knees, her right thigh, and left toes.”

She told investigators that after a verbal argument, “Mr. Lollobrigido grabbed her by both arms and slammed the back of her head into the refrigerator and her face into multiple kitchen cabinets.”

Loudoun County prosecutors and defense counsel agreed that Lollobrigido should be released on bond, with electronic monitoring before trial. Earlier, the Department of Corrections had recommended no bond.

“The Department of Community Corrections implemented the GPS monitoring on the defendant in accordance with the court’s order,” said spokesman Glen Barbour, on behalf of the county corrections agency.

“The defendant was required by the court to reside at a specific address, which the GPS monitoring device could confirm. However, the court’s order did not include any other restrictions on the defendant that would have required the GPS monitoring system to be configured in a manner that it alarm under certain circumstances,” Barbour said, in a statement.

In the charging document describing the hammer attack, Lollobrigido told detectives he hadn’t talked to his wife since July 2021, but “was aware that she had a male roommate that he believed she was having a relationship with.”

According to investigators, while Lollobrigido and his estranged wife were the only two in the apartment during the assault, “he would have done the same to the boyfriend [if] he was there.”

Lollobrigido is being held without bond.

Neal Augenstein

Neal Augenstein has been a general assignment reporter with WTOP since 1997. He says he looks forward to coming to work every day, even though that means waking up at 3:30 a.m.

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