Jan 06, 2006  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO, JR.  | COMMENTS     

A 44-year-old Fairfax man faces murder charges when he stands trial April 3, accused of the 1994 killing of gay Fairfax, Va. resident Marvin Greenwell.

A Fairfax County grand jury indicted Leslie E. Carver in October. A Fairfax Police spokesperson said DNA evidence linked Carver to Greenwell's apartment, where Greenwell was found dead from multiple stab wounds.

Carver had been held in the Prince William County, Va., jail since June after being jailed on parole violations, drunk driving and narcotics possession charges. The parole violation charge stems from a prior conviction for a series of 1994 robberies in Fairfax, Alexandria and Arlington.

The robberies occurred about the same time as Greenwell's murder. Carver's indictment came three months after Fairfax police appealed to the gay community for help in determining whether Greenwell had any personal interactions with Carver, whom police listed as a "person of interest" in the homicide.

Fairfax Police spokesperson Lt. Rich Perez declined to say if anyone from the gay community responded to the police appeal.

Police said Greenwell was known to have patronized Dupont Circle gay bars shortly before his death. His death was one of nine slayings of gay men in the D.C. area between August 1993 and May 1994 that investigators described as gay "pick-up murders" because the victims were believed to have met their assailant in gay establishments and invited them to their homes. Most of the cases remain unsolved.

Police said they have no evidence to indicate a single killer was responsible for all of the murders, but they have not ruled out the possibility that a single assailant may have killed more than one victim. Authorities have not said whether they have sought to match Carver's DNA with evidence taken from the crime scenes of the other murders.