A DISGRACED Democrat lawmaker has shot dead his wife and turned the gun on himself years after sexual assault allegations led to his political demise.

Former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax and his wife were in the midst of a messy divorce and having spats over separation when he opened fire in their basement on Thursday.

He and his wife of around 20 years Cerina, 49, were found dead in their $1million home in Annandale, Virginia – a suburb of Washington DC.

Cerina was shot multiple times in their basement, and Fairfax’s body was found in their primary bedroom, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said.

Their two teenage children were inside the home at the time of the brutal murder-suicide – and one of them first called 911 around midnight.

Davis said the couple were in the midst of a “messy divorce” and that Fairfax has just been served paperwork related to an upcoming court date.

The two were still living together despite separating, which was putting a strain on the proceedings, documents obtained by The U.S. Sun reveal.

In order to get a divorce in Virginia, couples must physically separate – and Cerina had indicated in previous filings they started living apart on June 1, 2024.

However, she failed to acknowledged she had intended for the separation to be permanent at the time.

Cerina also included a Postnuptial Agreement the couple had signed in December 2024 which spoke positively of their marriage and said separation might happen in the future.

The contradiction was pointed out in court, leading the judge to ask Cerina to rewrite and resubmit her complaint with edited information.

The last filing, which was submitted on Monday, included one motion to dismiss the wife’s complaint for “lack of subject matter jurisdiction” and another to set aside the postnuptial agreement.

Their next court hearing was set for this coming Tuesday.

Other filings reveal Cerina had accused her husband of halting financial support for their kids and ending mortgage payments months before the shooting, TMZ reported.

She told Fairfax she wanted a divorce on June 2 and offered to buy out his interest in their home, the documents say.

The disgraced Democrat had stopped paying 50% of their children’s private school tuition or for their extra curricular activities – or any household expenses, Cerina alleged.

She demanded primary physical custody of their kids and asked for Fairfax to have visitation rights.

Davis said he believes the new filing and incoming court date is what sparked the killing.

The police chief also noted cops had been called to the home in January by Fairfax who accused his wife of assaulting him, but authorities determined no assault had taken place.

Fairfax was first elected as lieutenant governor of Virginia in 2018 – but his rising political career was cut short in 2019 after women accused him of sexual assault.

Vanessa Tyson, an associate professor at Scripps College in California, said Fairfax allegedly assaulted her in a hotel at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

The two were consensually kissing when Fairfax grabbed the back of her head and starting forcing her to give him oral sex, she said at the time.

Fairfax vehemently denied the allegations and hired a legal team to defend his name.

In a statement he said, “I wish her no harm or humiliation, nor do I seek to denigrate her or diminish her voice. But I cannot agree with a description of events that I know is not true.”

Just days after Tyson’s allegations surfaced, another woman, Meredith Watson, claimed he raped her when they were undergraduate students at Duke University in 2000.

Watson has now shared her condolences for Fairfax’s children in a statement released through her attorney Nancy Erika Smith.

“First this is horrific for their children who were home at the time of this event,” reads the statement given to the New York Post.

“There were decades of signs of his anger and mistreatment of women and he used the court system to intimidate his victims and news outlets.

“Society must be more responsive when women report these crimes.”

While Fairfax was once again quick to maintain his innocence, this second accusation led lawmakers to start to call for his resignation.

Although some staffers quit, he went on to serve out the rest of his term and launched a doomed gubernatorial campaign which ended in him only getting 3.54% of votes in the Democratic primary.

No charges were ever filed against Fairfax and he attempted to sue several media outlets for defamation – but they were thrown out.

After exiting politics in 2022, Fairfax returned to work as a lawyer at a private practice.

Former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, who served alongside Fairfax, said he and his wife were heartbroken by Thursday’s tragedy.

“I had the privilege of getting to know the Fairfaxes while our families served together,” he said in a statement.