Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano slammed Gov. Glenn Youngkin today (Monday), accusing the Republican executive of commuting a former police officer’s prison sentence without regard for “the law or the facts.”
The governor’s office announced late Sunday that Youngkin had commuted the sentence of former Sgt. Wesley Shifflett only two days after it was handed down by Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows.
Descano, speaking to media outside the county courthouse, offered that Youngkin’s decision to intervene was clouded by his own political ambition.
“For political reasons, Glenn Youngkin stuck his face in where it didn’t belong,” Descano said. “If you care about having a fair justice system in Virginia that’s untainted by outside influence, Glenn Youngkin just spit in your face.”
Shifflett was sentenced on Friday (Feb. 28) to three years in state prison after being convicted on one count of recklessly handling a firearm, stemming from the on-duty shooting of D.C. resident Timothy McCree Johnson in February 2023.
Johnson, who was accused of stealing two pairs of sunglasses from the Nordstrom store at Tysons Corner Center, was pursued by Shifflett and another officer to a wooded area outside the mall.
After Johnson allegedly tugged at his waistband, Shifflett fired his service weapon in Johnson’s direction. Johnson was struck once in the chest, later dying from his injuries.
In October, a jury voted to acquit Shifflett of involuntary manslaughter, which would have carried a maximum of 10 years in prison. He was found guilty of reckless discharge of a firearm, however, stemming from his decision to fire his weapon in the often-populate area around the mall.
In a statement released Sunday, Youngkin said that he believed Shifflett’s sentence was “unjust” and “violates the cornerstone of our justice system.”
“In this case, the court rejected the Senior Probation and Parole Officer’s recommendation of no incarceration nor supervised probation,” Youngkin said. “… Sgt. Shifflett has no prior criminal record, and was, by all accounts, an exemplary police officer.”
At a press conference with Descano outside the Fairfax County Courthouse, Melissa Johnson, the mother of the victim, expressed a belief that Youngkin’s commutation sets a precedent that would negatively affect similar cases.
“Gov. Youngkin’s actions — by inserting himself this way — were not about safety of the police or safety of our community, but rather validating the rogue action of one Wesley Shifflett — someone sworn to uphold the truth, but did not,” Johnson said.
Youngkin’s commutation doesn’t vacate Shifflett’s felony conviction, which bars him from being employed as a law enforcement officer anywhere in Virginia. However, the former police officer could still appeal the conviction, Youngkin noted.
“There may be an appeal, and if there is an appeal, the state will deal with that as it comes,” Descano said. “But this is so early after a sentencing — which is really the genesis of a lot of this outrage — that we haven’t even taken any of those next steps that normally would’ve been taken at the time of a commutation.”
