Lee Boyd Malvo, the teenager who teamed up with John Allen Muhammad to terrorize the Washington area in a sniper spree that left 10 people dead in 2002, was formally sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Malvo, 19, was sentenced Wednesday after Muhammad was given the death penalty by a judge in Prince William County a day earlier. The judge in Muhammad's case could have reduced the sentence to life in prison, but Malvo's judge had no other option than life without parole, which the jury recommended.
Malvo, wearing a gray sweater, light blue shirt and dark trousers, did not speak during the 10-minute hearing, following the advice of his lawyers, who did not want his words used against him in future prosecutions.
PHOTO: AFP
Malvo was convicted of capital murder in the Oct. 14, 2002, killing of FBI analyst Linda Franklin outside a store in Virginia, when he was 17 years old. Muhammad was convicted in the Oct. 9, 2002, killing of Dean Harold Meyers outside a Virginia gas station.
Prosecutor Paul Ebert, who led the case against Muhammad and is next in line to try Malvo for Meyers' killing, said he would wait until the US Supreme Court rules on whether juveniles may be executed. A decision is expected next year.
"If the Supreme Court rules that the death penalty is still available to juveniles, I will try Mr. Malvo and very likely seek the death penalty," Ebert said. He added that a trial would not take place until next year, at the earliest.
Robert Horan, who led the prosecution of Malvo, said after sentencing that he plans to try Muhammad in the killing of Franklin. He said the trial could take place by the end of the summer.
Muhammad's attorneys are appealing his conviction, and Horan said another conviction would serve as a backup if the first one is reversed.
Malvo's attorneys argued during the trial that the teenager was legally insane because he was brainwashed by Muhammad, whom he considered his father. Jurors have said that while they did not believe Malvo was insane, they thought Muhammad had influenced him.
Defense lawyer Craig Cooley reiterated Wednesday that Muhammad was an influence.
"We do not believe anyone could have observed the evidence ... and believed Lee Malvo would be here except for the influence of John Muhammad," Cooley said.
Malvo attorney Michael Arif said after the hearing that the teenager is still in the process of realizing what he has done.
"He's cried on occasion, but hasn't yet come to appreciate the entirety of what has happened to the victims," Arif said.
Prosecutors in other states, including Alabama and Louisiana, are seeking Malvo's extradition to face potential death-penalty charges for killings there.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
RSS