Dawn Meade Case: Restraining Order, Trial, and Life Sentence

Dawn Marie Meade, a 40-year-old Connecticut woman, was murdered on September 22, 2017, in Louisa County, Virginia, when her boyfriend Gregory Veres deliberately struck her with a car after an argument. A jury convicted Veres of first-degree murder and felony hit-and-run in December 2018, and he is serving life in prison plus eleven years at Buckingham Correctional Center in Dillwyn, Virginia.¹

Who Dawn Meade Was

Meade was born March 15, 1977, at Norwalk Hospital in Connecticut and grew up in Fairfield County.² She graduated from Fairfield Warde High School and lived in the Norwalk area for most of her life.³ At sixteen she gave birth to her only child, a son named Joseph Muratori.⁴

The Relationship and the Restraining Order

Meade had been in a relationship with Gregory Veres, originally of Milford, Connecticut, for about two years.⁵ In February 2017, while the two were living together in Connecticut, she filed a restraining order against him.⁴ The couple moved to Virginia anyway that May and settled into the home of Veres’ grandmother in the Blue Ridge Shores subdivision of Louisa County. Meade’s son later said she had gone hoping to better her life but had begun telling him about the abuse. “I begged my mother to come home,” Muratori wrote afterward.⁶

The Night of September 22, 2017

The couple argued that night about the restraining order Meade had filed months earlier. At some point Meade got out of a vehicle Veres was driving and began walking home.⁷

Prosecutors later showed that Veres changed out of a bright fluorescent shirt into a dark sweatshirt, got behind the wheel of his grandmother’s car, and, in the words of Louisa Commonwealth’s Attorney Rusty McGuire, “hunted her down.” He drove the car off the road and struck Meade at roughly 60 miles per hour. The impact was hard enough that the front grill left an imprint on her leg.⁴ The collision happened near midnight in the 1100 block of Firehouse Drive, just outside the rear gate of the Blue Ridge Shores subdivision.⁵ Veres left her body on the side of the road and drove away. A resident of the subdivision found her in the early morning hours.

Arrest and Charges

Veres came to the attention of investigators after he contacted police to report that his vehicle was heavily damaged.⁵ The Louisa County Sheriff’s Office arrested him the same day and initially charged him with second-degree murder. He was held without bond at the Central Virginia Regional Jail in Orange County. By the time of trial, the charge had been elevated to first-degree murder, and Veres also faced felony hit-and-run and two additional counts.

The Trial

McGuire and co-counsel Robert Wood argued that the killing was premeditated, pointing to Veres’ deliberate change into darker clothing, his aggressive driving, and his decision to steer the car off the road to strike Meade.⁸ They presented forensic evidence including the grill imprint on her leg and the documented path of the vehicle.

Veres took the stand and testified that Meade’s death was an accident, claiming he had been too intoxicated to know what he was doing. Defense expert Richard McGarry testified that Veres’ blood alcohol concentration would have been high enough to keep him from forming the intent to kill.⁷ The Commonwealth called Dr. Jim Hutchings of the Virginia Department of Forensic Science to rebut the intoxication defense.⁴

The Louisa County jury convicted Veres of first-degree murder and felony hit-and-run and recommended the maximum sentence: life plus ten years.⁸

Sentencing

On March 25, 2019, a Louisa County judge upheld the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Veres to life in prison for Meade’s murder, plus an additional eleven years for the hit-and-run and the two other charges.⁷ At sentencing, McGuire said: “This is a tragic case where the Defendant killed his girlfriend and treated her worse than a dog. He killed her in the middle of the night and left her alone, cold, and in the dark, on the side of the road.”⁹ Veres is serving his sentence at Buckingham Correctional Center in Dillwyn, Virginia.¹

What Meade’s Family Did

In the days after his mother’s death, Joseph Muratori started a GoFundMe titled “Dawn Meade’s Funeral Fund” to bring her body back to Connecticut. “This past weekend, I lost my mother unexpectedly to domestic violence. She was taken from this world tragically and way too soon,” he wrote on the page.¹⁰ The campaign raised more than $21,500 from 387 donors, above its $20,000 goal.¹¹

Meade’s funeral was held at St. Margaret’s Shrine in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and she was buried at Riverside Cemetery in Norwalk. In lieu of flowers, her family asked for donations to the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence.² She is survived by her son Joseph Muratori, her mother Lordina Zarges, and her sisters Denise Zarges, Jennifer Lowther, and Jaime Hartshorne.¹²

1
The Cinemaholic. Dawn Meade Murder: Where Is Gregory Veres Now
2
Legacy.com. Dawn Marie Meade Obituary
3
Stamford Advocate. Ex-Milford Man Sentenced to Life in Prison
4
Connecticut Post. Former Milford Man Convicted of Murdering Girlfriend
5
WTVR. Dawn Marie Meade Dead After Louisa Hit and Run
6
Daily Voice. Fairfield Man Seeks Help Burying Mom Who Was Murdered by Boyfriend in VA
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WRIC. Man Gets Life Sentence for Running His Girlfriend Over
8
WTVR. Louisa Man Convicted of 1st Degree Murder for Running Over His Girlfriend
9
NBC12. Boyfriend Convicted of First-Degree Murder After Hitting Woman With Vehicle
10
Patch. Former Fairfield Woman Killed in Domestic Violence Incident in Virginia
11
GoFundMe. Dawn Meade’s Funeral Fund
12
Daily Voice. Funeral Services Set for Fairfield Warde Graduate Slain in Virginia