Washington – A jury on Tuesday convicted sniper John Allan Muhammad of six counts of first-degree murder, holding him accountable for six slayings in Montgomery County, Md.
The verdict, reached after 4 1/2 hours of deliberation, is Muhammad’s second conviction in the case. He had already been convicted in Virginia, where he is awaiting execution.
As the verdicts were read, some among the victims’ relatives in the courtroom wept.
Muhammad, wearing a tan suit, stood with his arms crossed but had no discernible reaction.
After the jury’s decision was announced, he asked the judge: “Your honor, may I speak?”
“No, sir,” Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge James Ryan responded.
Muhammad was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.
Maryland prosecutors spent nearly three weeks painstakingly outlining evidence that tied Muhammad and his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, to 10 homicides and three nonfatal shootings committed in the Washington area in October 2002 with a high-powered rifle.
The high point of the trial – which included testimony and evidence similar to that presented in the snipers’ trials in Virginia – came last week when Malvo agreed to plead guilty and took the stand against Muhammad.
Malvo, 21, testified that Muhammad was the mastermind of the scheme and said the older sniper pulled the trigger in most of the shootings.
Malvo was convicted in a sniper slaying in Virginia and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Muhammad, who represented himself at trial, implied that his case was the product of a sweeping law-enforcement conspiracy to frame an innocent man.
