Man gets life for murder in Virginia
A Louisa County, Va., judge has upheld a jury’s recommended sentence of life in prison for former Milford resident Gregory Veres on a first-degree murder conviction in the death of his girlfriend.
Veres, 31, was convicted in December of firstdegree murder and hit and run in the death of his girlfriend, Dawn Marie Meade, 40, who grew up in Fairfield.
Veres was convicted of running Meade over with a car on Sept. 22, 2017.
A jury recommended the maximum sentence of life plus 10 years. The judge last week sentenced him to life plus an additional 11 years for two other charges.
According to court officials, Veres got into an argument with Meade over a restraining order she had filed, and Meade left Veres to walk home.
“The defendant hunted her down and drove all four wheels of his grandmother’s car off the road and struck the victim going 60 mph,” according to a statement issued by Robert M. Wood, Louisa County Deputy Commonwealth attorney.
“This is a tragic case where the defendant killed his girlfriend and treated her worse than a dog,” Louisa Commonwealth’s Attorney Rusty E. McGuire said in a prepared statement when Veres was convicted. “He killed her in the middle of the night and left her alone, cold and in the dark, on the side of the road.”
After the sentence was imposed last week, McGuire said while nothing could bring the victim back, justice was done for her and her family.
According to an obituary notice, Meade had lived in Norwalk, and was a graduate of Fairfield Warde High School.
“Dawn had a contagious laugh that could turn any frown. She loved acting silly with her friends and family, but mostly enjoyed spreading joy and warmth wherever she went,” the notice says.
Last year, Meade’s son raised money on Gofundme to bring his mother’s body from Virginia to be buried.
“I lost my mother unexpectedly to domestic violence,” Joseph Muratori wrote on a Gofundme site in 2017. “She was taken from this world tragically and way too soon.”
Following the sentencing, Muratori said the past year has been very hard.
“Him going away forever isn’t going to bring my mom back,” Muratori said. “But it will stop him from hurting someone else.”
Veres grew up in Milford and over the years had a number of run- ins with police in Connecticut.
According to the Connecticut Judicial website, he was charged three times between 2011 and 2013 for reckless driving, in 2011 for possession of narcotics, in 2013 for interfering with an officer, in 2014 for failure to carry insurance, and in 2016 on a sixth- degree larceny charge. The website says the verdict in all the cases was guilty.