More News

Malvo says pair planned bombings

Muhammad wanted six killings a day for a month, to be followed by attacks on hospitals and schools, his accused accomplice testifies

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Courtroom sketch by Dana Kerkouteren⁄Associated Press In this artist’s rendering, Lee Boyd Malvo, at left with arms raised, testifies against accused sniper John Allen Muhammad, who sits at far right. At center is Deputy State’s Attorney Katherine Winfree.

Malvo provided chilling eyewitness details about the October 2002 sniper attacks, from the meticulous planning that went into them to the random selection of people to kill.

Before testifying, Malvo, 21, told Judge James L. Ryan he plans to plead guilty to the six counts of murder he faces in Montgomery County for his role in the deaths. He already is sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted in Virginia in 2003.

He explained his reasoning for testifying later in the day.

‘‘I’m here to tell the story, to tell the truth, to face Muhammad and for what it’s worth, if anything, the victims,” Malvo said to a courtroom packed with about 200 people, including several family members of victims who sobbed at points during his testimony.

Malvo testified to pulling the trigger in three of the shootings, including the slaying of the last victim, Ride On bus driver Conrad Johnson, 35, on Oct. 22, 2002, and the wounding of Iran Brown, 13, and Jeffrey Hopper, 37. But he admitted his involvement and responsibility in all of the shootings.

Asked by Principal Deputy State’s Attorney Katherine Winfree how he felt about the shootings, Malvo said, ‘‘I’m not proud of myself.”

At one point, Winfree asked Malvo what he thought of Muhammad today. ‘‘I think he is a coward,” Malvo replied. Then, looking at Muhammad, Malvo said, ‘‘You took me in your house and made me a monster. You clothed me, you fed me, you took me in as your child.”

Malvo spoke in an even voice and showed little reaction when he first entered the courtroom and faced Muhammad, 45. When Muhammad, who is representing himself, cross-examined the 21-year-old, Malvo occasionally looked down but kept his poise.

Muhammad asked if the voice recorder was the same one they used to record directions from people to find restaurants.

‘‘Yes, and that’s also the voice recorder we used on the recordings played by the prosecutors,” Malvo replied.

‘‘Your honor, would you instruct the witness just to answer the question?” Muhammad complained.

Malvo testified of a loving relationship with Muhammad in Jamaica, where they met and where the older man took him under his wing.

‘‘He began introducing me as his son,” Malvo said.

Muhammad introduced him to the Nation of Islam, and said ‘‘the white man is the devil,” Malvo said.

After they moved to the United States, Muhammad changed. He had lost his children in a custody dispute with his ex-wife. And Malvo’s mother, who was living in Florida, took him from Muhammad. Malvo ran away from home to rejoin Muhammad. He described traveling by Greyhound bus, living under assumed names, finding shelter in a mission for homeless men and spending days at a firing range, Malvo said.

Muhammad told him they had to get back his children from his ex-wife, and it would take them a year.

But somewhere along the way, Malvo said, the plan changed.

In July 2002, while they were in Louisiana, Muhammad told Malvo that they were going to Washington to terrorize the nation. ‘‘He said every day for a month there would be six slayings a day,” Malvo said.

The shootings would have been followed by an even more deadly ‘‘Phase 2,” with bombs planted at schools and hospitals to cause mass casualties, Malvo said.

‘‘I asked him, ‘Why would we be doing this? Why not just get the children?’ He said, ‘No, this is final.’”

They bought a Chevrolet Caprice and cut a hole in the back to fire from, Malvo said. The two then scouted the area and installed mapping software on a laptop computer to help them plan escape routes, Malvo said.

Winfree asked why they selected Montgomery County.

‘‘He said it was lower to upper middle class, mostly white,” Malvo said. ‘‘He thought this was the perfect area to terrorize. The chickens come home to roost.”

When the shooting began, they selected people at random. They selected locations without security cameras and with good escape routes. Their victims were whoever happened to be there.

On Oct. 2, they parked at the Shoppers Food Warehouse in Glenmont. Muhammad popped the trunk button and climbed in, waiting for Malvo, serving as a lookout, to give him the signal over the walkie-talkies they used for communication.

‘‘I told him he had a ‘go,’ and he fired,” Malvo testified.

The shot killed James D. Martin, 55, a program analyst, who grabbed his chest and died at about 6:05 p.m. As Malvo described the shot, Martin’s sister, Ola Dell Martin of St. Louis, wept, a tissue clutched tight in her hands held to her face.

Malvo said he directed Muhammad out of the parking lot and away from the area. They slept that night at a rest stop off Interstate 95 in Virginia to avoid being seen in the area.

The next morning they resumed. They were on their way to a pre-selected location when they saw James L. ‘‘Sonny” Buchanan, 39, of Abingdon, Va., owner of a landscaping business, mowing the grass near one of their locations at 7:41 a.m. on Rockville Pike near Nicholson Lane.

‘‘He said, ‘That’s him,’” Malvo said. They parked, Muhammad climbed into the back and Malvo signaled he had a ‘‘go.”

They went to several other locations but there were either no potential targets or too many witnesses, so they kept driving, Malvo said.

Premkumar Walekar, 54, of Olney, a part-time taxi driver, was killed at 8:12 a.m. while pumping his gas into his cab at the Aspen Hill Mobil.

They parked across the road at a shopping center lot. ‘‘Essentially you only need a small window to take the shot,” Malvo said. Walekar’s widow began sobbing until friends escorted her out of the courtroom.

And so the testimony went, with Malvo describing the killing spree that claimed 10 lives in the Washington area, including six in Montgomery County. Whether someone lived or died depended upon chance.

Before their arrest on Oct. 24, 2002, at an Interstate 70 rest stop in western Frederick County, the two had one more sniper attack planned for an Outback Steakhouse on the outskirts of Fredericksburg, Va., and then move on to ‘‘Phase 2,” Malvo said.

Muhammad wanted to kill one police officer in Baltimore. Then they would place a number of explosives around the cemetery to kill dozens of police officers attending the burial ceremony, Malvo said.

The two did not have the materials at the time, but Muhammad had said the materials were en route.

Muhammad also planned to plant explosives on school buses to kill students, he said.

‘‘He said the worst terror is to aim at their children,” Malvo testified.

On another occasion, Muhammad wanted Malvo to shoot a pregnant woman. He dropped Malvo off at a cemetery overlooking a housing project in Baltimore.

Malvo said he saw four different pregnant women.

‘‘I just couldn’t take the shot,” Malvo said.

‘‘Why not?” Winfree asked.

‘‘I just couldn’t,” Malvo said.

Early in the spree, Muhammad wanted to leave a ‘‘teasing” message to police. Malvo stole a pack of tarot cards and wrote a message, ‘‘Call me God.” Muhammad had not liked it, but after thinking about it for an hour, he said the message stayed,” Malvo said.

‘‘I was supposed to wait until eight or nine children filed off and then fire,” Malvo said of the attack at Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie. As they ran to the school, he was supposed to shoot at least five of the children.

Malvo spent the night in the woods. He left the note in the brush and waited.

‘‘I was told to maintain radio silence until after the mission,” Malvo said.

But Malvo said he did not see any buses pull up. Finally, he saw a teenager with a backpack and shot him. He heard the scream.

After he shot Iran Brown, he disassembled the weapon and met with Muhammad, Malvo said.

The plan had been to shoot children at an elementary school nearby, but it took too long for him to get the shot at Tasker.

Malvo said that after he shot Hopper in a parking lot on Oct. 19 in Ashland, Va., he met Muhammad in the car. ‘‘I was calm and Mr. Muhammad turned to me and said, ‘I’ve created a ... monster.’”

Staff Writer Margie Hyslop contributed to this story.