Sniper-Trial Judge Named to Virginia’s Supreme Court

By LARRY O’DELL

By Larry O’Dell

The Associated Press

RICHMOND

The judge who presided over the trial of sniper John Muhammad was appointed to the Virginia Supreme Court by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine on Friday.

The Democrat selected Virginia Court of Appeals Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. to succeed Justice G. Steven Agee, who was recently appointed to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Kaine also named Chesterfield County Circuit Judge Cleo E. Powell to the state appeals court and Richmond attorney James C. Dimitri to the State Corporation Commission.

The appointments were Kaine’s to make only because the General Assembly failed to agree on nominees. Lawmakers will vote on his choices when they return to Richmond in January.

Millette’s record includes less than a year of service on the state appeals court. Before that, he served nearly 15 years as a circuit judge in Prince William County, where Muhammad was convicted of killing Dean Harold Meyers in the 2002 sniper killings. Millette imposed the jury’s recommendation that Muhammad be sentenced to death.

Before serving on the Circuit Court, Millette was a General District Court judge, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Prince William County and a lawyer in private practice. He also has been an associate professor at Northern Virginia Community College since 1976.

“Judge Millette is a first-rate jurist who has devoted his life to the law,” Kaine said. Millette, 59, was born in Pennsylvania and raised in Alexandria and Fairfax County.

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Lawmakers will vote on Kaine’s selections when they return to Richmond in January.

Originally published by BY LARRY O’DELL.

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