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Virginia Judge Formally Sentences Sniper John Muhammad to Death

Bloomberg, USA
Mar. 9, 2004
Chris Dolmetsch
quote.bloomberg.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Tuesday March 9, 2004

March 9 (Bloomberg) — John Allen Muhammad, one of two men accused in the sniper-shooting deaths of 10 people in the Washington, D.C., area in 2002, was sentenced to death by a Virginia judge today for murdering a man at a gas station.

A jury in Virginia Beach, Virginia, convicted Muhammad of capital murder, terrorism, conspiracy and firearms violations in November for the death of Dean Harold Meyers, 53, who was gunned down in Manassas, Virginia, in October 2002. Meyers was the seventh sniper victim.

The same jury a week later recommended a sentence of death for the crime. Prince William County Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. today accepted the jury’s recommendation and formally imposed the death penalty, county sheriff’s Captain Brenda Perkins said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg News.

Muhammad’s execution is scheduled for Oct. 14, pending appeals, Cable News Network said. Muhammad, 42, a U.S. Army veteran, and Lee Boyd Malvo, 18, a native of Jamaica, are accused of 13 shootings in Washington, Maryland and Virginia during a three-week period in October 2002.

A jury in Chesapeake, Virginia, in December convicted Malvo of murdering a woman outside a suburban shopping center and recommended a sentence of life in prison. Both sniper trials had been moved from the Washington area because of publicity about the case.