Sniper trial paints disparate picture of teenager

WASHINGTON - Lee Malvo, the teenage suspect on trial in one of 10 sniper killings that terrorised Washington last year, has been portrayed both as an obedient boy eager for direction and as an expert gunman working alongside convicted murderer John Muhammad.

Malvo's trial in southern Virginia has dovetailed with the successful prosecution of Muhammad, a 42-year-old Gulf War veteran convicted in the October 2002 sniper siege. A jury has recommended that Muhammad be executed.

At 18, Malvo is being tried as an adult and could also face execution if convicted on two murder charges stemming from the killing of FBI analyst Linda Franklin, who was gunned down as she loaded purchases into her car in Washington's Virginia suburbs.

Defence lawyers contend that Malvo is innocent by reason of insanity, thoroughly brainwashed by Muhammad. Their strategy so far has included testimony showing a dramatic change in Malvo after he met Muhammad in 2000, when Malvo's mother left him to fend for himself on the island of Antigua.

Muhammad and Malvo hooked up in the United States in 2001, living as father and son in Washington.

Prosecutors portray a cold-blooded killer who worked with Muhammad and was the triggerman in most of the 13 sniper shootings in and around the US capital.

Jurors at Malvo's trial in Chesapeake, Virginia, have heard hours of recorded conversations between the youth and law officers.

"Did your targets matter, whether it was male, female?" one officer asked Malvo in a November 8, 2002, conversation that prosecutors called a confession.

"Nobody," Malvo replied.

"Just whoever got into that [gun] sight?"

"Yeah, whoever I picked."

"Do you ever feel bad about any certain one?"

"No," Malvo said.

But a series of witnesses have testified about Malvo's early promise as an intelligent student and obedient child in Jamaica and Antigua.

Malvo and Muhammad were arrested on October 24 last year as they slept at a rest stop in a 1990 Chevrolet Caprice that prosecutors say was outfitted as a sniper's nest.

In one recorded conversation, officers tried to confirm Malvo had agreed to speak without his lawyers present.

"I don't mind," Malvo said. "I'm dead. Even my attorneys [say], 'We can't do nothing for you'."

Malvo's trial is to resume on Monday.

The charge

* Lee Malvo is charged with the murder of Linda Franklin, 47, an FBI intelligence analyst who was loading shopping into her car with her husband when she was shot in the head.

- REUTERS