Malvo asked for help

CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo tried to get out of his “situation” a few months before last year’s sniper attacks in the Washington area, the first ex-wife of convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad testified yesterday.

Carol Williams of Baton Rouge, La., said the teenage suspect wrote a letter last summer to her niece in which he sought “help to get of the situation he was in.” At that time, Mr. Malvo was traveling across the country with Muhammad, who now faces the death penalty for his role in the sniper rampage.

It was not clear which situation the defendant was referring to in his letter, which was not read to the jury yesterday.

Craig S. Cooley, a lead attorney on Mr. Malvo’s defense team, has said the letter shows that his client was trying to escape Muhammad’s control. Mr. Cooley is expected to present the letter in the Malvo capital-murder trial today, but the prosecution likely will move to suppress the evidence.

Meanwhile, Muhammad’s son, Lindbergh Allen Williams, testified that his father has mind-control power and once had brainwashed him to hate his mother, Carol Williams.

“He was a manipulator,” said Mr. Williams, 21. “If you talk to him too long, he’ll get inside your head.”

Mr. Williams said Muhammad had a “big heart” and “loved kids” but also knew how to exploit people’s weaknesses and would bend people to his will.

He said his father turned him against his mother when he was 11, saying Muhammad falsely had convinced him that she was abusive.

As he left the witness stand, Mr. Williams and Mr. Malvo, 18, turned to look at each other. Mr. Williams frowned as he nodded to the defendant.

A broad smile broke across the face of the sniper suspect, who wore white khaki pants, a blue crew-neck sweater and light-blue dress shirt.

Yesterday’s testimony bolstered the defense’s case that the defendant should be found not guilty of gunning down Linda Franklin, 47, outside a Falls Church Home Depot last year because he was being controlled by Muhammad.

Mounting an insanity defense, Mr. Malvo’s attorneys say Muhammad, 42, indoctrinated the teenager into an “extreme brand of Islam” and “brainwashed” him to carry out the sniper attacks that left 10 dead and three wounded in the Washington area.

Muhammad and his one-time companion also are accused of nine other shootings in five states last year.

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