Thu, Nov 20, 2003 page7

• Malvo `intended to kill them all'

  • AP
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  In a chilling audiotape played for the jury, a soft-spoken Lee Boyd Malvo told police he pulled the trigger in all of the sniper attacks that terrified the Washington area last fall.

  "I intended to kill them all," said Malvo, then 17.

  In nearby Virginia Beach, meanwhile, a jury heard more evidence Tuesday on whether John Allen Muhammad should get the death penalty for masterminding the attacks. Muhammad was convicted Monday in the murder of Dean Harold Meyers, killed as he filled his tank at a gas station.

  Prosecutors said Tuesday that a map in a laptop computer found in Muhammad's car indicates that the former Army veteran was planning more killings over a wide swath.

  The map appears to show more than two dozen locations, stretching south to Raleigh, North Carolina, with markings such as "good spot" and "good stop." An icon for Norfolk, near where the trial is being held, was labeled "Good eastern move, many ways out."

  Another map also listed three elementary schools in Prince George's County, Maryland -- the same county where 13-year-old Iran Brown was wounded outside a middle school during the sniper spree.

  Malvo, now 18, is on trial on charges of murdering FBI analyst Linda Franklin, who was killed by a bullet outside a Home Depot. He could get the death penalty if convicted. Ten people died and three were wounded during the three-week sniper spree in Washington, Maryland and Virginia.

  Tuesday marked the first time the tape with the Malvo confession was played publicly. A little more than an hour was played for jurors, who were given transcripts because the sound was poor and Malvo's voice was soft. Several times, Malvo's interrogator, Samuel Walker, a detective with the Prince William County police department, is heard asking Malvo to speak up.

  When the officer asked Malvo whether he squeezed the trigger in all the shootings, Malvo first responded, "Basically, yeah."

  Asked to clarify, Malvo said, "In all of them."

  Walker focused on the Meyers slaying, eliciting through a series of questions that Malvo shot Meyers in the head because Meyers was standing sideways.

  "His body twisted this way, so I couldn't get a body shot," Malvo said.

  "He went down," Malvo said when Walker asked what happened to Meyers after the shot was fired.

  Walker testified Tuesday that he questioned Malvo on Nov. 7 last year -- two weeks after Malvo and Muhammad were arrested -- and "marveled at how intelligent he was."

  He also said that Malvo was candid and cooperative and never appeared to be out of contact with reality during the conversation, which lasted an hour and 40 minutes.

  Malvo's attorneys contend Malvo is innocent by reason of insanity because he was brainwashed by Muhammad, and they do not dispute that he took part in the shootings. They have said previously that Malvo confessed to protect Muhammad because he looked up to Muhammad as a father figure.

  Under cross-examination by defense attorney Craig Cooley, Walker acknowledged that Malvo made some mistakes in his confession to the Meyers shooting, getting the color and size of Meyers' car and the location of the head wound wrong.

  "Lee was definitely one of the people there, but we also said a significant issue in the case would be what role he played," Cooley said after court Tuesday. "He accepts far too much responsibility."

  On the tape, Malvo said that the shootings were done for money, but that he and Muhammad were not desperate. Authorities have said the shootings were intended to terrorize the nation's capital area and extort US$10 million from the government.
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