A long overdue day of reckoning may finally be coming for Steve Descano, the Soros-funded commonwealth's attorney for Fairfax County, Virginia, who has a long record of giving illegal aliens lenient (or no) sentences when they end up in the Fairfax court system. He's now facing a recall effort, and the woman leading the charge has a very personal reason for wanting him gone.
Her name is Cheryl Minter, and her 41-year-old daughter, Stephanie Minter, was stabbed to death in a Fairfax County bus shelter back in February, allegedly by an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone named Abdul Jalloh. Jalloh had a shockingly extensive criminal history, including sexual assault, and police had repeatedly warned Descano's office Jalloh was likely to be even more violent if he was released from custody.
And what did Descano do? He released Jalloh back onto the streets of Fairfax where he could allegedly prey on women like Stephanie Minter, who was just trying to catch a bus home on a rainy February night.
Now Cheryl Minter wants Descano removed from office. She has teamed up with the Victims' Rights Reform Council to launch a recall petition, which already has more than 12,500 signatures.
Cheryl Minter's message to the people of Fairfax County? “Thirty times the system had a chance to stop him. Thirty times.”
After her daughter Stephanie was fatally stabbed at a Fairfax County bus stop in February, Virginia resident Cheryl Minter launched a petition calling for the recall of Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano. Minter says Descano’s office had multiple opportunities… pic.twitter.com/DRx8i3sgMd
— Change.org (@Change) August 27, 2026
After her daughter Stephanie was fatally stabbed at a Fairfax County bus stop in February, Virginia resident Cheryl Minter launched a petition calling for the recall of Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano. Minter says Descano’s office had multiple opportunities to more aggressively prosecute Abdul Jalloh, the man charged with Stephanie’s murder, before the killing. Jalloh had been arrested more than 30 times and had faced charges that included rape, malicious wounding, and assault.
DHS says Jalloh entered the country unlawfully in 2012 and was later released from ICE custody after a judge ruled that he could not be returned to Sierra Leone. In a Washington Times op-ed about her campaign, Minter points to Descano’s written charging policy directing prosecutors to consider the immigration consequences defendants could face. She argues that the policy reflects an approach that was too lenient toward defendants like Jalloh. The Justice Department is investigating whether the policy resulted in preferential treatment for defendants without legal immigration status but has not reached any conclusions.
“My grandson will grow up without his mother because the system that was supposed to protect her protected a criminal instead,” she writes.
More than 11,000 people have signed her petition seeking Descano’s recall.
When he was first running to be Fairfax County's top prosecutor, Descano’s campaign website said this: “If two people commit the same crime, but only one’s punishment includes deportation, that’s a perversion of justice and not a reflection of the values of Fairfax County." That passage has since disappeared down the memory hole, but his entire tenure proves those words were more than campaign rhetoric.
The consequences of that philosophy are now under much-deserved scrutiny by the Justice Department and, perhaps more importantly, by the families who have paid the price for it. Cheryl Minter is making sure Fairfax County residents know exactly what Steve Descano is all about.