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Press Release

Inmate at USP Lee Indicted for 2018 Murder of Cellmate

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Virginia

ABINGDON, Virginia - A federal grand jury sitting in U.S. District Court in Abingdon has indicted Samuel Silva, an inmate a United States Penitentiary, Lee County and charged him with the premeditated murder of his cellmate in September 2018, Acting United States Attorney Daniel P. Bubar and David W. Archey, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Richmond Division announced today.   

Silva, 45, is charged with one count of willfully, deliberately, maliciously, and with premeditation killing Abraham Aldana, Silva’s cellmate at the time, in September 2018, by stabbing him.

The investigation of the case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Acting United States Attorney Daniel P. Bubar and Assistant United States Attorneys Zachary T. Lee, Daniel J. Murphy, and Aaron Stewart, a Trial Attorney with the Department of Justice’s Capital Case Unit are prosecuting the case for the United States.   

An indictment is merely an accusation.  The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.      

Updated April 12, 2021