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Two years before police say former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax fatally shot his wife, Dr. Cerina Fairfax, and then himself, she had tried to leave him.

The April 16 deaths have drawn attention to Virginia laws intended to prevent gun violence and reduce the risks surrounding difficult separations. They also carry a painful irony: Six years earlier, Justin Fairfax cast the tie-breaking vote for the state’s original red flag law.

“The red flag process is directed at trying to prevent these tragedies,” Del. Rip Sullivan, D-Fairfax, said.

More people will be able to seek gun restrictions

Gov. Abigail Spanberger recently signed two bills from Sullivan that update Virginia’s red flag system. Both changes take effect July 1.

House Bill 901, paired with Senate Bill 495 from Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, expands the list of people who may ask a judge for a substantial risk order.

Such an order can temporarily remove someone’s firearms and block additional gun purchases for up to 14 days. A longer prohibition of as many as 180 days may follow if the person is deemed a threat, though they can petition to regain access.

Until now, only law enforcement officers and commonwealth’s attorneys could file for the orders. The new law extends that authority to immediate family and household members, social workers, mental health professionals and school administrators.

Sullivan’s HB 896 also directs the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services to develop law-enforcement training and public outreach about the process.

The goal, Sullivan said, is to ensure communities know the option exists.

Court records suggest the current red flag law might have been relevant before the Fairfax deaths. A March 30 child custody order described signs of deteriorating mental health and changes in Justin Fairfax’s behavior during the couple’s prolonged divorce.

Fairfax faced sexual assault allegations while serving as lieutenant governor in 2019. He denied them, and no criminal charges resulted. He later lost the 2021 Democratic primary for governor as his political career declined.

According to the custody order, Cerina Fairfax described periods when her husband isolated himself, drank excessively and failed to pay his share of the mortgage, groceries and utilities.

In 2022, Justin Fairfax bought a handgun using money intended for the couple’s two children to take horseback-riding lessons. His brother later found him with the weapon in a park and helped arrange a late-night conversation with a mental health professional in a mall parking lot.

Sullivan said that episode could have offered an opportunity to use the expanded red flag process if the new law had existed then.

Shared home intensified a difficult divorce

The deaths have also renewed scrutiny of Virginia’s divorce rules.

Couples generally must remain separated for six months before receiving a divorce, or one year when they have children. The Fairfaxes separated during the summer of 2024, and Cerina Fairfax began divorce proceedings in 2025.

Court records show Justin Fairfax sought to extend the case by arguing that his wife had not disclosed an intention to divorce when they initially separated. Throughout the separation and court proceedings, the couple continued living in the same house but used different bedrooms.

Courtenay Schwartz of the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance said financial pressure often keeps separating couples under one roof.

Although Justin Fairfax was a lawyer and Cerina Fairfax was a dentist who owned a practice, his legal work had largely disappeared after he left office, and he had accumulated debt. Cerina Fairfax, remembered by friends as kind and as the foundation of her family, covered household costs and supported their children.

In the period before the deaths, a Fairfax County judge wrote that Justin Fairfax had “undefined emotional and psychological issues” that were “in fact defining him.”

Sen. Russet Perry, D-Loudoun, said forcing deeply upset people to remain together because they cannot afford to separate can aggravate an already volatile situation. Perry, a lawyer whose prosecutorial work included assisting domestic-violence victims, called such circumstances a “powder keg.”

Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said the apparent murder-suicide stemmed from an ongoing domestic dispute involving a complicated divorce.

Police had visited the home months earlier after Justin Fairfax claimed his wife attacked him. Davis said officers reviewed cameras she had installed inside the house and found that the recordings disproved his allegation. After the deaths, the footage also helped police confirm the sequence of events.

Schwartz said the presence of indoor surveillance during a separation and looming divorce was itself concerning and “not normal.”

A judge had ordered Justin Fairfax to leave the shared home by April 30. He was also required to take a breathalyzer test before visits with his children and was due in court April 21 for possible contempt proceedings over alleged failures to follow earlier orders.

Davis said the latest court papers served on Fairfax might have been the “spark” preceding the killings.

Lawmakers consider broader divorce reform

Perry said the public does not know every detail of the Fairfaxes’ relationship, but their deaths demonstrate how laws can affect people caught in similar circumstances.

She cited Sullivan’s HB 303, another measure recently signed by Spanberger. The law concerns adultery as grounds for divorce while also creating a workgroup to consider whether Virginia should eliminate fault-based divorce entirely.

Perry and Schwartz said no-fault divorce could particularly benefit people experiencing domestic violence. Removing the need to establish fault could shorten expensive proceedings and limit continued contact between an abuser and the person trying to leave.

Perry is considering legislation that would eliminate fault-based divorce and separation waiting periods, calling Virginia’s existing rules outdated and paternalistic.

Schwartz said clients and callers to her organization’s hotline have described fearing for their safety while lacking the money needed to continue lengthy divorce cases.

Although courts sometimes have good reasons to proceed deliberately, Schwartz said reform is needed when people seeking to end a marriage face dangerous delays and unaffordable legal barriers.