SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. — Lee Boyd Malvo accepted a deal yesterday in which he avoided the death penalty and was sentenced instead to life without parole for a second of the 10 sniper slayings that terrorized Washington area residents in October 2002.
Malvo, 19, already is serving a life sentence for one of the killings, and could face a death penalty prosecution for some of the others.
Malvo was sentenced for the Oct. 11, 2002, killing of Philadelphia businessman Kenneth Bridges at a Spotsylvania gas station. He also was sentenced to a second life sentence for the wounding of Caroline Seawell, who was loading goods into her car in a parking lot Oct. 4, 2002.
Malvo entered an Alford plea, by which he did not admit factual guilt but admitted the government has sufficient evidence to convict him. Malvo cannot appeal the sentence.
Malvo, dressed in an orange jumpsuit with a stun belt attached, declined to make a statement before he was sentenced.
Spotsylvania Commonwealth’s Attorney William Neely said he consulted with the victims’ families and said they were supportive of the plea bargain.
“Mr. Malvo is getting no deal,” Mr. Neely said. “He’s spending the rest of his life in a maximum-security prison where he’ll be locked down 23 hours a day, seven days a week for the rest of his life.”
Malvo was convicted last year and sentenced to life in prison for the Oct. 14, 2002, murder of FBI analyst Linda Franklin, one of the 10 sniper killings over a three-week span in Maryland, Virginia and the District. His accomplice, John Allen Muhammad, is on Virginia’s death row for another of the slayings.
Mr. Neely said after yesterday’s hearing that Malvo’s actions appeared to be heavily influenced by Muhammad. When Malvo was tried last year, his attorneys put on an insanity defense, saying Muhammad had brainwashed Malvo into a killing machine.
“Clearly [Malvo] shot a lot of people,” Mr. Neely said. “But he was also under the influence of a much older, much more manipulative person.”
Mr. Neely also said he doubted he could obtain a death penalty against Malvo given his youth and the sympathy that a brainwashing claim might engender.
Still, Malvo could face the death penalty in Prince William County, as well as in Alabama and Louisiana, where he and Muhammad are charged with killings in the weeks and months before the sniper spree.
Malvo, who initially told police he was the triggerman in nearly all of the killings, recanted that confession and said Muhammad was the triggerman in all but one. His attorneys said Malvo had been brainwashed by Muhammad as part of an insanity defense and that Muhammad was the driving force behind the sniper spree.
Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul B. Ebert, who obtained a death sentence for Muhammad, has said he will pursue the death penalty against Malvo if the U.S. Supreme Court rules this fall that the execution of 16- and 17-year-olds is constitutional.
Malvo’s attorney, Craig Cooley, said because Malvo faces a potential death-penalty prosecution elsewhere, it was wise to enter the Alford plea in Spotsylvania County.
Still, he said, Malvo “accepts responsibility to the extent that he is serving life in prison without parole.”
Malvo is serving his term in solitary confinement at Virginia’s maximum-security Red Onion prison. His segregated status is in part out of concern for Malvo’s safety at the prison, Mr. Cooley said.
Also yesterday, Mr. Neely said he will not prosecute Muhammad unless Muhammad’s conviction is overturned on appeal and Prince William County is unsuccessful in a retrial.
Mr. Neely cited the $2 million cost of a trial, and the effect it would have on the Spotsylvania courthouse, which does not even have two full-time Circuit Court judges. He also said multiple prosecutions become pointless eventually.
“Mr. Muhammad can only be executed one time,” Mr. Neely said.
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