Judge cites 'callous' crime in sentencing ex-lawyer to life for attack on law firm partner, wife
A judge in Fairfax County, Virginia, agreed with jurors’ recommendation on Friday and sentenced former lawyer Andrew Schmuhl to two life sentences plus 98 years in prison for an attack on a law firm managing partner and his wife.
Judge Randy Bellows said the November 2014 attack on Leo Fisher and his wife, Susan Duncan, was “brutal” and “callous,” the Washington Post reports. Schmuhl did not speak before sentencing.
Fisher, who was managing partner of Bean, Kinney & Korman, had fired Schmuhl’s lawyer wife, Alecia Schmuhl. Prosecutors said Schmuhl stabbed both Fisher and Duncan in a “torture session” at their home in McLean. The attacker left after Duncan was able to trigger an alarm. Both Fisher and Duncan survived.
Andrew Schmuhl is a former Army judge advocate and military magistrate. He had claimed he was on painkillers and other medications during the attack and he doesn’t remember it.
Alecia Schmuhl is scheduled to go on trial next month. She is accused of waiting in the car during the attack and driving her husband from the scene.
