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A Prince William County judge has sentenced a 38-year-old Manassas man to two life sentences without the possibility of parole in the April 2024 shooting deaths of two women, one of them pregnant.
Circuit Court Judge Petula Metzler handed down the sentence against Edward Bland Jr. on July 2 — plus an additional 74 years in prison, with 15 years suspended — for his role in the deaths of 34-year-old Leann Renee Harris and 22-year-old Asia Payne.
In December, a Prince William County jury found Bland guilty of aggravated murder of a pregnant victim to terminate her pregnancy, aggravated murder of killing more than one person, second-degree murder, carjacking, and three counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
On April 2, 2024, Prince William County police responded to the Westgate apartment complex in the Manassas area for reports of a man with a gun, followed by a report of a carjacking.
While investigating the carjacking, officers received a call from Shenandoah County deputies regarding the stolen vehicle.
“Shenandoah deputies relayed information that the driver, later identified as Edward Jackson Bland, confessed to them that he had killed two people in Manassas,” Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Amy Ashworth’s office said in a news release.
Police were able to determine the apartment where Bland had been prior to the carjacking and breached the door, where they found Harris and Asia Payne both dead of a single gunshot wound to the head, the release said. Ashworth’s office did not say which victim was pregnant. Police at the time said both victims knew Bland.
“The senseless, brutal and unprovoked killing of two women by Mr. Bland truly merited such a sentence,” Ashworth said in a statement. “Gun violence, especially with multiple victims, will not be tolerated in our community, and we believe that permanently removing Mr. Bland from society because of his heinous crimes will make Prince William County a safer place.”
The case was prosecuted by Deputy Commonwealth鈥檚 Attorney Matthew J. Sweet and Senior Assistant Commonwealth鈥檚 Attorney Kimberly Rothenberger.
