Malvo takes stand against former sniper partner
Lee Boyd Malvo testified in Rockville, Maryland, today that his former partner and father figure, John Allen Muhammad, told him before the 2002 sniper attacks that panicked the region around America’s capital for weeks, “We’re going to terrorise this nation".
Malvo said Muhammad also outlined a plan for six sniper shootings a day for 30 days, to be followed by a bombing campaign that would target schools, school buses and children’s hospitals.
America was already reeling from the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon that killed nearly 3,000 people, and from a series of postal mailings of anthrax spores that killed five people later in 2001.
Muhammad planned to follow his own terror campaign with the abduction of his three children, whom he had lost in a custody battle, Malvo said.
Malvo tried to dissuade Muhammad and suggested they should simply get the children and leave the country.
“I said ’Why?’ He didn’t give me an answer,” Malvo said.
Both Muhammad, 45, and Malvo, now 21, have already been convicted in Virginia for a sniper murder there.
Muhammad received a death sentence while Malvo was given a life term.
Prosecutors in Maryland have said they are pursuing a second trial in case the Virginia conviction is overturned on appeal and to provide justice in Montgomery County, where six of the 10 killings occurred.
Malvo was called as a witness in Muhammad’s first trial but refused to testify, invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination.
Today, Malvo said he was so distraught after that six-hour conversation in July 2002 that he played Russian roulette, crying in a bathtub. He pulled the trigger several times before realising the next trigger pull would be fatal.
“I just broke down. I couldn’t pull the trigger,” Malvo said.
Before testifying, Malvo told the judge that he intends to plead guilty to murder charges against him in Montgomery County. He appeared nervous but was expressionless when he entered the courtroom, looking generally in Muhammad’s direction but not making direct eye contact.
Malvo, who was largely abandoned by his parents, said Muhammad “basically took me under his wing” a few months after they met in May 2000.
“He began introducing me as his son,” Malvo said.
Asked by prosecutor Katherine Winfree, “Did you come to love Mr. Muhammad?” Malvo responded “yes,” with his voice choking.
“Did you tell him that? Winfree asked.
“Yes,” he replied, his voice again choking.
Shortly after the pair were arrested on Oct. 24, 2002, Malvo confessed to being the triggerman in all the shootings. But he later recanted and told mental health experts hired by his lawyers that Muhammad, 45, was the shooter in nearly all the deaths.
The pair also is suspected of earlier shootings in Maryland, Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana and Washington state.
Muhammad continues to refer to Malvo as “my son” and told jurors in the trial’s opening statements that he intends to prove Malvo’s innocence as well as his own.
Malvo’s lawyers contended Muhammad brainwashed the teenager and turned him into a killer. They also said that well after the arrest, Malvo never fully detached himself from Muhammad despite deep anger toward him.
