New details emerge about former Virginia Lt Gov's struggles before apparent murder-suicide

Court documents related to divorce proceedings between former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and his wife before he apparently fatally shot her, then himself Thursday appear to show the politician, after a sexual assault allegation, abused alcohol and was losing his children in a custody battle.  

The shootings were related to a domestic dispute stemming from “what seems to be a complicated or messy divorce,” said Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis. The incident reportedly occurred in the family's Annandale, Virginia, home shortly after midnight on Thursday morning. 

The court documents in the divorce indicate that Fairfax, a Democrat who served as Virginia's lieutenant governor from 2018 to 2022 and unsuccessfully campaigned for governor in 2021, had spiraled into alcoholism and had become increasingly distant from his family after the 2019 sexual assault allegations against him. 

Though Fairfax strenuously denied those allegations, the judge in the case said they weighed on the ex-politician. Fairfax was never criminally charged in connection to those allegations. 

“The wife testified that heavy daily alcohol consumption by the father has become the norm,” the judge wrote in the custody opinion. The judge also wrote that "the evidence also showed that in 2022 a father purchased a handgun with money intended for his children's horseback riding lessons."

The judge ultimately ruled that the alcoholism and self-isolation prevented him from having a relationship with his children. 

Fairfax, as a result, lost custody of his children and was ordered to move out, court documents state.

In addition, Fairfax couldn’t find a job or get legal clients after the sex assault, a friend of the politician and attorney told The New York Post.

Fairfax and his wife, Dr. Cerina Fairfax, were scheduled to return to court on Monday for the next phase of the divorce proceedings.