A Fairfax County man will spend the next seven decades in prison for raping a woman he knew from high school and hiding her body in a Springfield wooded area.
On Friday, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Jonathan Frieden sentenced Terence Bridgett Jr. to sentences totaling more than two life terms, with all but 70 years suspended, Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano announced.
The case dates to June 2024, when 26-year-old Springfield resident Fayra Bonilla-Rubi was reported missing by her family on June 10 after she did not return home from meeting Bridgett two days earlier.
How the case unfolded
Bonilla-Rubi's body was found on June 14, 2024, in a wooded area near the 7600 block of Highland Street in Springfield, prompting a death investigation by the Fairfax County Police Department. Her body had partially decomposed. She was found covered by a sheet with most of her clothes removed, according to Descano's office.
When detectives arrested Bridgett, his phone contained a video of Bonilla-Rubi appearing unconscious in his minivan, the Commonwealth's Attorney's office said. His DNA was linked to her body and clothing, and surveillance footage and cell phone location data showed the two had been together for hours on June 8, 2024, in multiple locations.
An arrest warrant was issued for Bridgett on June 19, according to online court records. A grand jury indicted him on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, on charges of first-degree murder, rape, forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual battery, concealing a dead body and unlawful filming.
Guilty plea and sentencing
A trial was scheduled for April 28, 2025, then postponed to Feb. 17, 2026. On that date, Bridgett pleaded guilty to all charges except murder. He was sentenced five months later.
The murder charge was dismissed as part of the plea agreement because an autopsy could not determine Bonilla-Rubi's cause of death or confirm she died by homicide, Descano's office said.
“Fayra’s death and disappearance devastated her family and community, and it is even more disturbing to know that she was violated and assaulted while unconscious by someone she trusted,” Descano said in a statement. “It is in our shared public safety interest that the man who did this to her will not be able to hurt anyone else.”
Frieden imposed two life sentences for the rape and sodomy charges, 20 years for sexual battery, five years for concealing a dead body and one year for unlawfully filming a nude person. The active sentence totals 70 years.
Bonilla-Rubi's mother and sister testified at the sentencing hearing, describing the impact of her death on their family.
"It is in our shared public safety interest that the man who did this to her will not be able to hurt anyone else," Descano said in a statement announcing the sentence.
