Victim: Lisa Herrington

Herrington was abducted, raped and murdered by Chabrol on July 9, 1991 in retaliation for filing sexual harassment charges that led to his dismissal from the Navy. She was abducted at 6:25 am from in front of her Virginia Beach townhouse, then driven to Chabrol's house in Albemarle Acres in Chesapeake, where she was brutally killed.

Chabrol opted not to appeal his conviction nor expressed any regrets for having committed the homicide, which he viewed as an act of revenge.

Former Navy Officer Executed for Murder

The New York Times

June 19, 1993

A former Navy lieutenant was executed Thursday night for abducting, raping and strangling an enlisted woman who had complained about his advances.

The former officer, Andrew J. Chabrol, 36, was put to death in the electric chair at the Greensville Correctional Center after refusing to fight the death sentence handed out a year ago. As a result, he had the shortest wait of any of the 20 Virginia inmates executed since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976.

Mr. Chabrol pleaded guilty to the 1991 murder of Melissa Harrington, with whom Mr. Chabrol had tried to develop a romantic relationship when she was in his command. But Mrs. Harrington rejected his advances and complained to his superior.

Mr. Chabrol said her complaint damaged his career and ruined his marriage. He left the Navy in 1991 and began planning revenge, keeping a computer journal in which he referred to Mrs. Harrington as "Nemesis."

He and another man abducted her from her Virginia Beach home while her husband was out of town and took her to Mr. Chabrol's home in Chesapeake. His accomplice, Stanley J. Berkeley, was sentenced to three life terms for murder, rape and abduction.

Mrs. Harrington was strapped to a bed and raped. When she fought back, her head was tightly wrapped in duct tape and she was strangled with a rope.

"I just went berserk," Mr. Chabrol testified.