Although Aaron Robertson was sentenced last week to 28 years in prison for the brutal killing of Fairfax City’s Luis Barahona Reyes, the victim’s family and the prosecutor were hoping for more. Indeed, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Kaitlin Morgan argued in Fairfax County Circuit Court that Robertson deserved the longest sentence possible – 40 years – for his offense.
Stressing the “long and extensive nature of the attack,” she said Robertson “killed a complete stranger and was indifferent to his suffering. And his actions forever changed the lives of those who loved him. Mr. Robertson delivered the maximum amount of pain to this victim and his family, so he deserves the maximum sentence for his crime.”
The tragedy occurred June 9-10, 2023, behind a building under construction at 9715 Fairfax Blvd. in Fairfax City. Following an investigation, Fairfax City police arrested Robertson on July 6, 2023. He later gave police an unsolicited confession – which jurors watched during his May 6-8 trial in Circuit Court. On May 9, they found him guilty of second-degree murder.
During Robertson’s trial, City Police Det. Joe Pittman testified that, after seeing footage from surveillance cameras at both the WAWA and 7-Eleven near the crime scene, police identified Robertson, 30, as the suspect.
Pittman also obtained a video showing both men riding on a City CUE bus, June 9, just after 11 p.m., before both exited at Draper Drive, some 350 yards from where Barahona Reyes’s body was found, the next morning. At the time, Robertson was 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds – much taller and heavier than his 49-year-old victim.
Robertson had no fixed address; but on June 11, police searched his room at a Fair Oaks hotel where he often stayed with his girlfriend. There, they seized the victim’s shoes. “The top and side of the right shoe was covered with blood,” said Pittman. “And a DNA examination identified it as belonging to Barahona Reyes.”
Police also spoke with people in the vicinity of the crime scene and eventually built a timeline of both men’s whereabouts on June 9-10 before arresting and charging Robertson with murder.
Then, on Sept. 12 – with permission from his attorney, Mike Sprano – Robertson asked Pittman to come speak with him in jail. The next day, after being advised of his Miranda rights, Robertson was videotaped while telling both Pittman and Det. John Farrell how he’d killed Barahona Reyes.
Robertson said and his fiancé had argued on June 9, and she pepper-sprayed him, so he packed his things and left. “And from that morning, I was drinking that whole day, two to four beers at a time,” he said. “That night, I was drinking near Wawa [directly across the street from the murder scene] and didn’t know where I’d go stay that night.”
When he got off the bus, said Robertson, a man [Barahona Reyes] was walking behind him and whistling. “He said, ‘Hey,’ and was speaking in Spanish,” said Robertson. “Then he [allegedly] said, ‘Me and you go back there’ and he pointed behind a building and [reportedly] said, ‘Sex; I give you money.’”
“So I got upset,” said Robertson. “We walked across the street, behind the building, and I put my bags down. I knocked him out and he hit his head hard. I took his beer and poured it over him and walked away. But I thought I should check on this dude.”
Robertson said he returned, asked Barahona Reyes if he was all right and told him he wasn’t gay. “He said something in Spanish, stood up near the wall, went in his pocket and got a small knife and lunged toward me,” said Robertson. “I told him to back up, but he lunged again.”
And although Robertson said he was “scared and nervous” when he saw the pocketknife, he also described it as the kind a “grandfather” would carry. He then said he easily disarmed Barahona Reyes and attacked him again.
“I hit him, knocked him down, took the knife out of his hand and started choking him,” said Robertson. “I hit his head on the ground and kicked his head with my right foot. He stands up, but I kicked his butt and he fell over.”
Next, Robertson told how he picked up a nearby brick – which the prosecutor said was actually a rock – and hit Barahona Reyes with it. And when it broke, he got another one and continued battering the man. Realizing the victim was still breathing, Robertson said he then stabbed him with his own knife, aiming for his heart – and the medical examiner testified in court that Robertson succeeded in striking it.
“I was just focused on hurting this dude,” said Robertson. He also explained how he tried to cover up the crime by getting rid of the victim’s belongings, throwing away his own blood-spattered shirt and tossing the knife in a sewer near his grandmother’s house in Maryland.
After killing Barahona Reyes, said Robertson, “I left my bags there, walked into the 7-Eleven and washed the blood off my hands. I walked back over there and didn’t know what to do. I never did nothing like that in my life; that wasn’t my intention. I got his arms and pulled him to the dumpster and covered him with cargo boxes and trash bags.”
Following his May conviction, Robertson returned to court last Friday, July 26, for sentencing. First, though, Judge Michael Devine heard testimony from three members of the victim’s family.
Taking the stand first was Barbara Barahona Reyes, whose older brother Luis helped raise her after her mother died in childbirth. And years later, when she became a single mother, he helped her again with money and guidance. Yet while devastated by his death, she said she forgives Robertson.
However, her daughter Neyda Barahona said she’ll never do that. “I think of my uncle and how he died,” she said. “Seeing the photos of how he was found – and the violence of it all – was traumatic. My uncle did not deserve to be murdered for who he is.”
“And he was still more of a man than [Robertson] was,” she continued. “Robertson lived off the women in his life; my uncle helped all the women in his. I will never forgive him. I love and miss my uncle, and I’m still angry.” She then read part of a poem that said, “God, please let the deer on the highway get some kind of heaven…If I am killed for simply living, let death be kinder than man.”
Testifying next was her cousin, Rosibel Barahona, describing her Uncle Luis as loving, caring, kind and hardworking. “I grew up with him since age 5; he took care of me,” she said. And as an adult, Rosibel said they talked daily about family things and plans to travel together.
“He was the best uncle, and I have so many great memories of him,” she said. “His death was hurtful, and I’m angry and want justice for him. I don’t understand why he was taken from us like he was. [Robertson] took a pillar from our family, and it’s unacceptable.”
Following his murder, Rosibel said she didn’t sleep well for months. “I still have nightmares that someone’s going to come out of nowhere and get me,” she said. “And I still dream of my uncle; I don’t have him to talk to anymore. He was there for my son, as well. There’s so much to miss about him. We can’t laugh anymore or talk about family gossip. It’s just so sad how cruel this person was to my uncle. It’s impacted all of us in my family because we’re not going to get my uncle back.”
Then it was prosecutor Morgan’s turn. She said Robertson had prior convictions for assault and robbery, with a criminal record spanning 13 years, since he was 17. “And after being released from incarceration for an attempted robbery, he committed another one,” she said. “He’s shown the court that probation isn’t enough to deter him. He escalated from robbery and assault to this brutal and heinous murder.
“He’s demonstrated he’s not able to follow the rules, and his violent history has led him here today. The aggravating factors in this crime include his astonishing level of brutality and the fact that he used multiple weapons. And we got a glimpse of the victim’s agony from the coroner’s medical records.”
After leading Barahona Reyes across the street, said Morgan, “Robertson hit him so hard that, after two hours, he was still where Robertson left him. He then jerked the victim up by the arm – and Barahona Reyes was injured so badly that, as he stood up, he left a bloody handprint on the wall.”
Then, said Morgan, “Robertson kicks him in the head and back, knocks him to the ground. He hits him with a brick or rock and hits him with another one after the first one breaks. Then Robertson flips him over and stabs him five times in the neck and upper chest before he’s satisfied that Luis is dead.
“At any time, he could have walked away – and he did – but then he came back and continued beating him. And when the defendant was done, he left Luis among the trash because that’s what the victim was to him.”
Although Robertson could have received as much as 40 years in prison, the state sentencing guidelines recommended 15-25 years, so defense attorney Sprano sought a sentence at or below that amount. He also revealed his client’s mental illness. “It doesn’t negate what happened,” said Sprano. “But he grew up in a violent environment of fighting and drive-by shootings. At age 8, he was assaulted by a 14-year-old, and he saw his mother beaten by his stepfather.”
At age 15, Robertson had schizophrenia symptoms, said Sprano, with psychotic episodes at 16. At 17, he was convicted of attempted robbery and spent nine months in detention. Shortly afterward, he was convicted of the same crime and sentenced to two years in prison. While there, at age 18, he committed aggravated assault against another inmate and was given three more years to serve. He was released at 22 and has been homeless ever since.
“He rarely felt safe and still heard voices inside him,” said Sprano. “And all these things created the mental state he was in that night. It doesn’t excuse what he did, but he told the police, ‘That man shouldn’t have died; that was wrong.’”
Robertson then stood and apologized to Barahona Reyes’s family. “I didn’t assault him because he was a homosexual,” he said. “I did it because he offered me money for sex. He didn’t deserve to die for that. I’d been trying to move forward with my life, get a job and do the best I could. I’m sorry for what I did.”
But Judge Devine had the last word. “The level of violence was extreme and extraordinary,” he told Robertson. “And the impact on the family was substantial and life changing – they will never get over it. I believe you didn’t set out to do harm that night. But I don’t think you’ve done everything you could have to live a good life. You’ve had a serious mental illness for decades and did nothing about it.”
“Saying what you did was senseless and needless is an understatement,” continued Devine. “But given your violent history, this was almost inevitable, in some fashion. Barbara Barahona Reyes said she forgives you, which is stunning. Yet it’s only through forgiveness that they’ll ever find peace. But I don’t blame anyone for not ever being able to forgive you.
“I can’t fix the hole you placed in this family’s hearts. I hope they remember [Luis] for what he was, and not how he died at your hands. I’ve been asked to serve justice for you and for them, so I’m sentencing you to 40 years in prison, suspending all but 12, and leaving you 28 years to serve. Upon your release, you’ll be placed on 10 years’ active supervised probation, with the condition that you obtain mental-health evaluation and treatment. I believe that’s a fair sentence.”
Barahona Reyes’s Family Responds to Sentence
After the man convicted of killing their loved one was sentenced last week in Fairfax County Circuit Court, relatives of Luis Barahona Reyes spoke to The Connection about how they felt. The perpetrator, Aaron Robertson received 28 years in prison.
“I hope he really thinks deeply about what he’s done,” said the victim’s niece, Rosibel Barahona. “I don’t think he realizes how much he hurt us and the pain he caused us. I’d hoped he’d be given at least 30 years. But I do have peace – because this process is finished – that my uncle is finally resting in peace, now that he’s gotten some sort of justice.”
Her son Joel, 26, prefers to recall the happier times with Luis. “I always remember the times when my uncle took me to my elementary-school bus stop in the mornings, and the conversations we’d have,” he said. “It makes me depressed and angry thinking about his death. I wanted [Robertson] to be sentenced to 40 years. But at least they caught him and found out he was responsible – not everyone gets that.”
Rosibel’s cousin, Neyda Barahona, said she’d have preferred Robertson to have received life in prison – but that punishment wasn’t on the table for a charge of second-degree murder. “But if not, the consolation prize would have been 40 years,” she said. “I can’t bring myself to be content with the sentence. … I’m a jumble of emotions – anger, disappointment and sadness,” said Neyda.
She also doesn’t believe Robertson is really sorry for taking her uncle’s life. “In court today, he only talked about himself – not about what our family is feeling,” she said. “It wasn’t a real apology. He didn’t apologize for the pain he caused to Luis or to us.”
Ultimately, said Neyda, “I feel like justice for my uncle wasn’t done. They should have thrown the book at Robertson. That man had nobody like my uncle to love or care for him, and that’s probably why he became what he became.”
However, both Neyda and her mother, Barbara Barahona Reyes, praised the work of the Fairfax City police and the prosecutors. Barbara said she’s grateful to Detectives Joe Pittman and John Farrell for their support and for all the work they did on this case. And Neyda thanked Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorneys Andrew Bolton and Kaitlin Morgan – who prosecuted Robertson in General District Court and Circuit Court, respectively – for “fighting the fight that my uncle couldn’t.”