VIRGINIA BEACH, Nov. 17 -- John Allen Muhammad was convicted Monday of
murder, terrorism and other charges that could send him to death row for his
role in the Washington area sniper shootings last year.
The 42-year-old Muhammad stood with hands clasped before him, biting his
lower lip as the foreman repeated the word "guilty" four times.
The seven-woman, five-man panel returned the verdict after approximately 6
1/2 hours of deliberation, finding Muhammad guilty of two counts of capital
murder, conspiracy and illegal use of a firearm.
The penalty phase of the trial began after jurors returned from lunch.
Assistant Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Richard A. Conway told
jurors they had ample evidence to execute Muhammad.
"Even if you didn't hear another soul testify, you certainly already heard
enough" to deliver the death penalty, Conway said in the prosecution's opening
statement.
Conway promised to present evidence about a
shooting in Washington state that predated the sniper siege, and told jurors
they would hear about Muhammad's alleged access to two handguns and a rifle not
tied to the Washington-area rampage.
Conway referred to Muhammad's "callous attitude toward human life" and notes
purportedly found in his stolen laptop computer and his car outlining plans for
future attacks. "We reserve the death penalty for the worst of the worse,"
Conway told the jurors. "Folks, he still sits right in front of you without a
shred of remorse."
Defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro acknowledged that jurors would "put John
Muhammad in a box of one kind or another. One is made of concrete; one is made
of plywood."
He urged jurors to see another side of Muhammad, a person he described as "a
friendly guy, a solid, hard-working man who loved his children. John Muhammad
was a human being."
Shapiro recounted how Muhammad grew up in New Orleans in a family so poor
they couldn't afford pain medication for his mother, who died of breast cancer
when Muhammad, born John Williams, was three years old. In high school, Muhammad
joined the ROTC and proudly wore his uniform to school "virtually every day. He
loved that uniform," Shapiro said. Muhammad joined the National Guard and later,
the Army.
But after failures in his life mounted and Muhammad lost his marriage, his
children and his business, the convicted sniper eventually found himself living
in a homeless shelter in Tacoma, Wash.
Shapiro promised jurors they would meet others from that shelter who found
inspiration in Muhammad and credited him with a "spiritual wakening."
"Is he irretrievable, worthless, not worth our time?" Shapiro asked. "Or is
there some reason to spare him?"
"It is not necessary," he concluded, "to extinguish one more life."
After both sides concluded their brief opening statements, the prosecution
began calling witnesses to buttress the argument that Muhammad deserves to
die.
First on the stand was Isa Nichols, a former
accountant for Muhammad's car-repair business and friend of his ex-wife,
Mildred.
Nichols's 21-year-old niece, Keenya Cook, was fatally shot in the face Feb.
16, 2002, when she opened the door to her aunt's home in Tacoma.
Prosecutors said they would link that slaying to
Muhammad, who they allege was seeking revenge because Nichols had sided with his
ex-wife in their divorce and bitter custody dispute.
Nichols also testified about accompanying Mildred Muhammad to a court hearing
when her children were returned to her 17 months after Muhammad abducted them
and fled to Antigua.
Nichols said Mildred Muhammad was so frightened of her ex-husband that she
sought refuge in a sheriff's lounge after seeing him in the courthouse hall that
morning. After losing parental rights, Nichols said, an "angry" Muhammad
appeared in the hallway where Mildred Muhammad was making a phone call.
"Mildred dropped the telephone and ran down the corridor" as Muhammad started
"coming toward her," Nichols said.
Attorneys bustled Mildred Muhammad and her friend into a cab, she added.
Nichols said Mildred Muhammad feared her former husband.
"Mildred felt he was going to destroy her," she testified.
Prosecutors suggested earlier in the trial that the sniper shootings were a
smoke-screen by Muhammad and that his intended target ultimately was Mildred,
who was living in the D.C. area with the children.
The accountant later recounted the evening months later when she came home to
find her niece, Keenya Cook, lying on the floor in a smoke-filled house, a pot
melted on the stove.
"I grabbed her hand and her hand was cold," Nichols said. "Her eyes were open
but fixed." Nichols said she then noticed a piece of metal she later learned was
a bullet casing near her niece's head.
Under cross-examination, Nichols acknowledged that Muhammad had seemed like
an affectionate father, respected businessman and was "very courteous."
When Muhammad initially disappeared with the couple's three children, Mildred
Muhammad became so ill and exhausted that she collapsed and ended up in the
hospital, her friend testified.
After the couple separated and Mildred entered a shelter for battered, abused
and troubled women, John Muhammad contacted Nichols attempting to find her,
Nichols said. Nichols described John Muhammad as having "a chameleon-like
character," capable of adapting to any situation.
The penalty phase will continue Tuesday at 9
a.m.
Muhammad, a Louisiana native and Gulf War veteran, was convicted in the Oct.
9, 2002, slaying of 53-year-old Dean H. Meyers, who was gunned down outside a
gasoline station in Manassas. His alleged accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, is on
trial in nearby Chesapeake.
One of the requirements for a finding of
capital murder is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was
responsible for killing more than one person within the previous three
years.
Prosecutors built their case against Muhammad around 16 separate
shootings.
The second capital murder charge against Muhammad centers around a new
anti-terrorism statute that allows the death penalty if a homicide is committed
with an intent to terrorize the public at large or intimidate the
government.
During the sniper rampage in October 2002, authorities received
communications demanding $10 million "for the killing to stop."
Although the evidence against Muhammad was circumstantial, the jury agreed
with prosecutors that he was "the immediate perpetrator" in the sniper
attack.
In voting for capital murder, the jury determined that Muhammad was
responsible for at least one killing besides Meyers's during the previous three
years. The panel did not specify which of the nine other sniper slayings they
considered in reaching the guilty verdict, or if they linked Muhammad to all of
those slayings.
Family members of some of the shooting victims exchanged joyful hugs outside
the neo-colonial, red brick building where many have watched the trial on closed
circuit, as those who sat in the courtroom for the verdict returned to share
their relief with those who stayed in the private viewing room.
"Yeah," shouted an exuberant Pamala Nichols, her arms punching high in the
air as she walked through the courtyard leading to the building. The mother of
Keenya Cook was accompanied by her mother, Willie Jean Nichols. Both women wore
T-shirts bearing Keenya's photograph, taken at a Thanksgiving dinner shortly
before she was killed. It was the same photograph that accompanied her obituary.
Although the 20-year-old woman's death was not part of the case prosecutors
made against Muhammad in the trial phase, the women said they felt somewhat
vindicated nonetheless.
"Any way it's done, they took care of us, too," said Willie Jean Nichols, who
heard the verdict in the viewing room.
Pamala Nichols said she never doubted a guilty verdict, which she heard
sitting in the courtroom holding hands with other family members who lost loved
ones.
"I was so happy," she said. "I feel like everything has been lifted off my
shoulders. Now I want to know if he gets life, or the death penalty.
Willie Jean Nichols has no doubts which would be preferable. "Death isn't a
penalty," she said. "They are just going to put him to sleep. Life in prison is
better for both of them. I forgive him, because I'm a Christian. It was hard. I
had to pray real hard. But I know he will pay for what he did. God will take
care of it."
And the family members will be left with only memories.
"Closure is not something I understand," said Willie Jean Nichols. "There
won't be any closure for us, due to the fact Keenya is not coming back."
Muhammad maintained his composure after the guilty verdicts were read, taking
his seat back at the defense table as lawyers argued over what evidence could be
presented during the penalty phase.
Prosecutors sought to include testimony about alleged anti-Semitism harbored
by Muhammad, a Muslim convert.
Over defense objections, Prince William County Circuit Court Judge LeRoy F.
Millette Jr. agreed to let jurors hear about shots fired into a Tacoma, Wash.,
synagogue. No one was injured in the incident.
Prosecutors did not say when it happened.
Millette refused to allow testimony, however, about alleged anti-American
sentiments voiced by Muhammad, saying they would "not necessarily show depravity
of mind." Depraved indifference and a convict's future threat to human life are
factors jurors must consider in determining whether to sentence someone to
death.
Earlier Monday, while the jury was deliberating, prosecutors alluded to an
alleged escape attempt by Muhammad, but disclosed no details. They did not
specify when or where the alleged escape attempt happened, but sheriff's
spokeswoman Paula Miller later said it did not occur during Muhammad's pretrial
incarceration in Virginia Beach's city jail.
The prosecution also sought the right to tell jurors during the sentencing
phase about the defendant allegedly flooding his jail cell toilet on purpose.
Prosecutors said Muhammad's conduct while jailed is relevant.
Judge Millette said he would take the matter under advisement.
Also in the morning, Millette refused to release any evidence for use in the
ongoing trial of Malvo.
"We're not going to give them any evidence 'til you're done with your
deliberations," he told the jury.
That physical evidence includes the Bushmaster rifle linked by prosecutors to
the three-week sniper siege that left 10 people dead and three wounded in the
Washington area a year ago.
Millette said the legal teams arguing the Malvo capital murder trial in
nearby Chesapeake could photograph evidence if necessary.
Staff writer Carol Morello contributed to this story.
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