SPRINGFIELD, Va. ( NEWS10 ) — The Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office announced on Friday that 53-year-old Stephan Smerk was sentenced to 70 years in prison for the 1994 murder of Robin Lawrence . The Niskayuna man pleaded guilty back in October, nearly 30 years after Lawrence’s death.
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Smerk admitted that in November 1994 while serving in the U.S. Army, he left the barracks of his Arlington base intending to kill someone, but with no specific target. He confessed to driving to West Springfield, breaking into Lawrence’s home, and stabbing her 49 times.
According to prosecutors, Lawrence’s two-year-old daughter was in the home at the time of the murder. Lawrence’s body was discovered by friends on November 20, 1994, after her husband, who was out of town at the time, reported not hearing from her for several days.
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After the case went unsolved for almost three decades, detectives were able to identify a possible link to Smerk through blood samples collected at the crime scene. In September 2023, Fairfax County and Niskayuna Police confronted him at his house in Niskayuna and requested a voluntary DNA sample in connection to the investigation. Smerk turned himself in a short time after providing the sample.
“The random and senseless murder of a young mother scarred Fairfax County for more than 30 years,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano. “The pain left by Robin Lawrence’s murder can never fully heal, but I hope that today’s sentence will help her loved ones finally close this difficult chapter.”…