Arlington’s police union and top prosecutor are in a war of words over a previous case involving the Pentagon City stabbing suspect.
Leonardo Reyes, the man accused of sending a mother and her toddler to the hospital with life-threatening stab wounds in a Saturday night attack, was out on probation for the attempted robbery of a drug store in 2021.
Randall Mason, president of the Arlington Coalition of Police, condemned a plea deal for that crime that resulted in Reyes, now 23, spending less than a year and a half behind bars.
“A deferred disposition, which is what this was, for a robbery involving a gun with multiple victims is pretty unheard of,” he said in an email to ARLnow. “I don’t know if Parisa would be able to point to a similar outcome for a similar crime in a different jurisdiction.”
Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti defended the decision to drop several felony charges against Reyes as part of his 2021 plea agreement. She said the sentence he received was well within state guidelines.
“As usual, the ACOP is either operating with limited information or deliberately misguiding you — so take what they say with a grain of salt, given their political activity against me,” she told ARLnow.
The attempted robbery happened at a CVS on Richmond Highway near Crystal City on the night of Jan. 21, 2021.
Around 10 p.m., Reyes pointed what appeared to be a handgun at a clerk and demanded that she give him the money in the cash register, a statement of facts obtained by ARLnow says. After the cashier told him the register was locked, he reportedly fled the business while an employee called the police.
Officers found the would-be robber, who was 19 at the time, with a bottle of “suspected Xanax” and an Atak Stalker 9mm — a weapon that resembles a real firearm but is designed to shoot blanks.
“I lost two jobs. I got no choice,” he told police, according to the statement of facts.
Reyes accepted a plea agreement and received a sentence of a year and a half behind bars, plus three and a half years of suspended prison time. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dropped charges of possession of a controlled substance, use of firearm in commission of a felony, and illegally carrying a concealed weapon.
The deal also stipulates that, if Reyes completed the conditions of his probation, charges of attempted robbery would be reduced to simple assault on his record.
Dehghani-Tafti said “the specific facts of this case supported dismissing the firearms charges.”
She also said the agreement took into account Reyes’ documented substance use and mental health issues, which led to him participating in the Addiction, Corrections, and Treatment program at the Arlington County jail.
The commonwealth’s attorney added that Reyes, who had no prior criminal record, “did extremely well” in the program and was released from jail a few months early as a result. She noted that sentencing guidelines called for between nine months and a year and nine months of incarceration.
“I think it’s laughable that the ACOP says it’s ‘pretty unheard of,’ considering that the guidelines are literally, like, an average of what happens across the Commonwealth,” Dehghani-Tafti said.
Mason sharply criticized this response, calling it “insane” that an attempted robbery involving a firearm could potentially be treated as a misdemeanor.
“The only reason this was within guidelines was because of the charges Parisa got rid of,” he said. “Every charge related to the firearm went away. Parisa has said she takes firearm charges seriously but we don’t see that here at all.”
He pointed out that using a firearm in commission of a felony alone comes with a three year mandatory minimum sentence in Virginia.
“Parisa also didn’t have to do an agreed sentence,” Mason added. “She could have agreed to just the plea and let the judge sentence him based on the facts of the case.”
In all, Mason asserted that Dehghani-Tafti’s office has been “much more lenient” than her predecessor, Theo Stamos, and has not fully delivered on promises of transparency.
“Parisa ran on the campaign promise of data transparency from her office. That has yet to come to fruition five years later,” he wrote. “The outcomes of felony offenses, and specifically firearms related charges, likely play a large role in the lack of transparency. The public would be shocked to know what has actually been playing out in court.”
Mason further accused the prosecutor’s office, which serves Arlington and Falls Church, of “absurd leniency” in DUI cases, including reducing charges so the defendant avoid jail time.
“The public safety concern associated with every DUI would NEVER have been dealt with in this manner from Theo’s office,” he said. “All of this is an open secret in the Arlington courthouse.”
Comparable sentencing statistics to corroborate Mason’s assertions were not immediately available.
Dehghani-Tafti declined to provide any comment on the current case against Reyes, including on whether he appeared to be under the influence of drugs when he was arrested.
As a condition of his probation, Reyes was required to remain sober, live in a recovery residence and complete outpatient substance abuse services.
The 23-year-old currently faces two counts of aggravated malicious wounding and child abuse, as well as contributing to the delinquency of a child, following Saturday’s attack. Reyes could face at least 20 years in prison on each count of aggravated malicious wounding, if convicted.
The incident took place around 9:45 p.m. near the entrance to the Target store at the corner of Army Navy Drive and S. Joyce Street. Initial reports suggest the woman and toddler were both stabbed and critically injured by Reyes, said to be the child’s father.
Another young child that was with them was reportedly uninjured.
Reyes was taken into custody in a nearby parking garage after being tracked down by an alert officer and a police K-9, according to a police press release and scanner traffic.
The adult victim was in “critical but stable condition” as of Sunday, while the child was in stable condition, police said.
Reyes’ next court date is scheduled for March 6, according to online records.
Jared Serre contributed to this report
