Death sentence considered in beating death prosecution

FALLS CHURCH — The Faifax County commonwealth’s attorney says he will decide over the next month whether to seek the death penalty against a man charged in a Falls Church woman’s beating death.

The body of 29-year-old Genevieve Orange, a popular member of McLean Bible Church, was found in her apartment in September after she didn’t show up for work. A detective testified at a preliminary hearing yesterday that DNA from fluids found on her body match that of 43-year-old Mark Lawlor.

Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond Morrogh says Orange was brutally beaten with more than 30 blows to the head.

Fairfax General District Judge Stewart Davis found probable cause to send the murder case to the grand jury. Morrogh says he’ll decide by mid-March whether to pursue a death sentence.