ROCKVILLE, Md. - Twice-convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad was sentenced Thursday to six consecutive life terms in prison with no possibility of parole, a sentence prosecutors consider insurance in case his Virginia death sentence is ever overturned.“You, Mr. Muhammad, have no hope. You have no future. You will spend every day for the rest of your life locked in a cage,” Montgomery County Circuit Judge James Ryan said.
Muhammad, 45, stood with his head bowed as the sentence was announced. Some in the audience applauded.
Muhammad was convicted Tuesday of six counts of murder for six of the 10 deadly sniper attacks that terrorized the Washington area in October 2002. This time, Muhammad acted as his own attorney at trial, and his young accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, took the stand for the first time to testify against him. Malvo told jurors how the older man, his one-time mentor, trained him to shoot and drew him into a sinister plan to kill people, including children, indiscriminately.
Jurors deliberated less than five hours before finding Muhammad guilty.
Malvo, sentenced to life in prison in Virginia, had agreed to plead guilty in the Maryland killings. He was not promised leniency but told jurors he wanted to face the man who he said trained him to be a killer. He called Muhammad a “coward” and, at one point, glared at him, saying: “You took me into your house and you made me a monster.”
Muhammad called him “son” and questioned Malvo’s credibility, saying the 21-year-old had problems with exaggeration and memory. He also claimed he was framed by investigators who planted and fabricated evidence and said he was the victim of a broad law enforcement conspiracy.
Muhammad could be returned to VirginiaÂ’s death row as early as Thursday afternoon, according to Darren Popkin, Montgomery County chief deputy sheriff. Malvo likely will remain in Maryland until he formally enters a plea in October. Other states still have outstanding charges against Muhammad from earlier shootings, including Louisiana and Alabama. It will be up to Virginia whether to send him away again for further prosecution.
| We have plenty now, I think. |