A Fairfax County jury decided the fate of a man accused in the brutal killing of a woman last year in an apartment building in the Seven Corners area.
Silvia Vaca Abacay died after her attacker, Richard Montano, mistakenly thought she was his ex-girlfriend, prosecutors said. Vaca Abacay and her husband had been sharing an apartment with her friend when she was beaten, stabbed and set on fire. Vaca Abacay was the 40-year-old mother of a son and daughter, who live in Bolivia.
Jurors on Thursday found Montano guilty of first-degree murder and arson.
Prosecutors said the killer didn't know Vaca Abacay was staying at her friend’s home. He set out to kill his ex after she broke up with him following a long, volatile relationship, prosecutors said.
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Montano's ex-girlfriend, Fatima Via, said Montano physically abused her but she never imagined he was capable of murder.
“I feel guilty. Part of me feels guilty because he come for me, not for her, and she have to pay for something that’s supposed to happen to me," she said.
“Jail forever. Jail forever," the victim's husband, Joselo Landivar, said about the prison sentence he hopes to see.
More than a dozen of Vaca Abacay’s friends and relatives waited in court to hear the verdict.
“I feel devastated. We’re still heartbroken. We still cannot believe what happened,” friend Yerin Romero said.
In closing arguments, prosecutors said Montano killed the wrong woman and then tried to cover up the crime with a fire. Montano pleaded not guilty, and his defense attorneys worked to raise reasonable doubt.
A horrific attack
Inside The Villages at Falls Church building on Willston Place, police found a gruesome scene on Aug. 10, 2022.
Doorbell camera footage from a neighbor shows Montano, then 47, entering the apartment. Prosecutors say he attacked the moment a woman went through the door. But the woman wasn’t his ex; it was Vaca Abacay.
“He quite literally went for the jugular. He went for the face, the head, the neck. He’s going to where it will inflict the most damage,” an attorney said.
A medical examiner counted at least 10 blunt force injuries and 10 stab wounds.
A neighbor heard commotion and called 911. Jurors listened to the call and heard the victim’s screams echoing.
“Listen to the pain and anguish in Silvia’s voice as she is screaming for her life in that call,” the prosecutor said.
Next, there was smoke. The prosecutor told jurors: “He lit a body on fire to cover up a gruesome murder — a gruesome murder of the wrong person. He murdered the wrong person and now he needs to cover his tracks.”
Montano fled out a back window, prosecutors said. He was arrested later that day. A bent knife was found in the back of his truck, they said.
His defense attorneys pointed out what they argued is reasonable doubt.
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“There is not a scratch on Mr. Montano. Why didn’t he cut his hands?” a lawyer asked.
She pointed out there was no DNA on either Montano or the victim’s fingernails, as might be expected after a violent confrontation.
“That, ladies and gentlemen, is reasonable doubt,” she said.
Montano faces life in prison at sentencing Jan. 19.
Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.
