Bazen Berhe: Virginia man receives 100-year sentence for stabbing Target co-worker over stolen lunch

Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers’ discretion advised.

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VIRGINIA: A Virginia man was sentenced to 100 years in prison for murdering his co-worker in 2021, as per Yahoo News.

As per the accused, he killed the victim because he took his lunch from their office fridge.

25-year-old Bazen Berhe, pleaded guilty in October to first-degree murder in the April 17, 2021, killing of 58-year-old Hernan Leiva in what Berhe described to a judge as a fit of rage, as per the Washington Post.

What did Bazen Berhe do? 

Authorities said Berhe, then 22 years attacked Leiva with knives and a hammer when the victim arrived at work that morning.

In an unusual statement to Judge Robert J Smith in Fairfax Circuit Court, Berhe pleaded for a stiff sentence and promised he would behave behind bars while serving a maximum term. “I promise, your honor, I won’t kill someone again,” he said. “I will not stab someone.”

Berhe, who is from Ethiopia, said he was in a “state of absolute anger” before the killing because he was having trouble with immigration authorities.

Berhe claimed that he was furious when he learned he would not be allowed to remain in the country. Berhe was enraged when Leiva, a janitor at Target, stole his lunch from the office refrigerator three days before the murder.

According to police, Berhe started "training for the murder" the following day after buying the hammer and two knives.

About 3:30 a.m., in the parking garage at the 5100 block of Leesburg Pike, police found Leiva, of Falls Church, suffering from apparent stab wounds, officials said.

On Tuesday, January 30, Berhe said in court that he had entered the garage about an hour earlier and stood behind a staircase, lying in wait to kill the first person who appeared.

Berhe claimed that morning, as Leiva descended the stairs to go to work, he stabbed and beat him with a hammer.

What did Berhe say in courtroom? 

Berhe apologized to Leiva’s family, saying he “would have stabbed anyone” and that the slaying was not personal to Leiva.

“Even a 4-year-old kid,” he said. “If anyone had gone down the steps first, I would have killed them.”

Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano (D) said the sentence was warranted. “In this case, because of the unique and self-proclaimed danger the defendant continues to pose to the community, today’s sentence was a necessary outcome for maintaining public safety,” he said in a statement.

Nearly fifteen members of Leiva's family were present in the courtroom on Tuesday.

"There is no denying that it was very gruesome and grotesque, how I killed that man,” Berhe said. “But I want the family to know, I did everything in my power to kill him in less than a minute.”