Prosecutor Urges Death Penalty for Malvo

A prosecutor urged jurors on Monday to recommend a death sentence for teenager Lee Boyd Malvo, saying last year’s series of sniper attacks was a textbook definition of the kind of vile crime that warrants the ultimate penalty.

“We submit that the penalty of death is the appropriate verdict in this case,” Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. said during closing statements in the sentencing phase of Malvo’s trial.

Malvo was convicted last week of capital murder and the jury must decide whether to recommend death or life in prison.

Horan said the sniper attacks, in which 10 people were killed and three others were wounded, were “outrageously vile,” one of the requirements a jury must find to recommend the death penalty in Virginia.

“They started out by killing innocent people before they even told the government” they wanted $10 million, Horan said of Malvo and his partner, John Allen Muhammad.

Defense lawyer Craig Cooley said in his closing that Malvo is not inherently evil but was shaped by those around him, particularly Muhammad.

“There’s no such thing as a self-made man,” Cooley said. “Lee was uniquely susceptible to becoming attached to a father figure in the charismatic personage of John Muhammad.”

Cooley said Malvo was susceptible to Muhammad because of his father’s absences and because his mother beat him and moved him constantly.

“Children are not born evil. When they commit evil acts, you can almost always trace the acts to the evil that has been performed against them,” Cooley said.

The case was expected to go to the jury later Monday.

Malvo was found guilty Thursday of killing FBI analyst Linda Franklin on Oct. 14, 2002, during the three-week series of attacks.

During the trial’s guilt phase, Malvo’s lawyers mounted an insanity defense, claiming he was incapable of telling right from wrong because of Muhammad’s indoctrination.

In November, a jury in Virginia Beach recommended the death penalty for Muhammad, 42.

Earlier Monday, Malvo’s father testified for 15 minutes about his son’s childhood. Leslie Malvo lived with his son in Jamaica until Lee Malvo turned 5, when the boy’s mother, Una James, moved away and took Lee with her. The father and son saw each other only a few times after that.

From the age of 3, Lee Malvo wanted to be a pilot, Leslie Malvo said.

“The two of us would watch the planes coming down,” he said. “Lee loved it very much.”

Earlier Monday, a social worker testified that Malvo changed his behavior and attitude while in jail, slowly breaking away from Muhammad after hearing witnesses describe his childhood in Jamaica.

Carmeta Albarus, herself a Jamaican native, said Malvo was uncooperative after his arrest but slowly came around after having phone conversations or listening to audiotapes from his father and from a teacher with whom he had a special bond in Jamaica.

“The turning point was hearing his father’s voice,” she said, which elicited tears from Malvo.

Malvo’s trial had been mostly devoid of emotional moments until the sentencing phase began. But the testimony grew intense and jurors wept as relatives of some of the victims testified about their loss.

Myrtha Cinada, whose father, Pascal Charlot, was killed, avoided looking at Malvo until the end of her testimony.

Then, she turned toward him and said: “Malvo, you are evil. You’re insane because you took my father’s life. Because of you, he didn’t have a chance to see his great-grandchild. That’s insane of you to do. You’re evil.”