Family slams insanity plea for man who crafted elaborate plan to kill Fairfax City father

A Fairfax County family spoke out against the insanity plea granted to the man who killed a Fairfax City resident in 2022. 

The wife, parents and sister of the slain man, Gret Glyer, pointed out that prosecutors had shown the defendant written out a detailed murder plot before breaking into the Glyer family home and shooting the victim as he slept.

Fairfax County Judge Stephen Shannon on Thursday accepted the not guilty by reason of insanity plea for Joshua Danehower after clinicians for the prosecution and the defense both deemed Mr. Danehower legally insane.

The plea allows Mr. Danehower, 37, to be relocated to a psychiatric hospital instead of going to prison.

The victim’s wife and children were home at the time of the killing, but were unharmed.

Medical officials will evaluate Danehower’s mental state annually at the facility. Once he shows enough improvement, he will be free to go.

“Justice is not served today,” Silvia Glyer, Gret Glyer’s mother, said after the Thursday hearing. “An evil man took his life in the middle of the night. A coward. Somebody who planned step by step a murder and who is backed up by the justice system in Virginia.”

Prosecutors shared the elaborate plan Mr. Danehower jotted down prior to the June 2022 slaying. 

Mr. Danehower’s document mentioned that he needed to acquire a loaded pistol, a mask and ski goggles in order to kill Glyer. His plan further said he needed to wipe his phone and computer while driving to Glyer’s home in Fairfax City.

Once inside the house, according to the murder plan, Mr. Danehower needed to fire “multiple rounds” and deliver a “finishing shot” before leaving. 

The detailed instructions went on: “Hop fence, clothes in trash bag, get on 66 as soon as possible.”

Mr. Danehower practiced his at a gun range at least a dozen times in the lead-up to the killing.

Family members said Glyer’s wife, Heather, went on a date with Mr. Danehower in 2012. He went forward with the killing because he was trying to reconnect with Giyer’s wife. 

The clinicians for the prosecution and the defense both reported that Mr. Danehower began experiencing psychotic breaks in 2012, suffering hallucinations and making delusional statements. 

By 2018, Mr. Danehower told therapists, according to evidence in the case, that he needed “to eventually kill [Glyer]. I thought he had forced [Heather] to marry him.” 

He also convinced himself, according to a psychologist’s written report, that Glyer, a nonprofit executive, was part of the “illuminati.”

“I remember thinking, I don’t want to do this; this is not what I want to do,” Mr. Danehower said, according to the report. “What I thought was, well, this guy is pure evil, so I have to take him out, so I just shot him.” 

One of the psychologists wrote that Mr. Danehower was “experiencing the symptoms of a mental disease or defect” that made him unable to understand the nature of his actions or to distinguish right from wrong.

The Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, which is headed up by George Soros-backed top prosecutor Steve Descano, said the clinicians’ separate reports on Mr. Danehower meant they could not secure a guilty plea in court.

The outcome of the case was little consolation for Glyer’s widow. 

“I was robbed of my life partner,” she said on the stand. “My kids were robbed of their father.” 

Mr. Danehower returns to court in May to determine which psychiatric facility he will be placed in.