John Allen Muhammad 

Date of Birth:  Dec. 31, 1960

Sex: Male

Race: Black

Entered the Row: March 9, 2004

District: Prince William County

Conviction: Capitol Murder – Two Counts

Virginia DOC Inmate Number: 331009

John Allen Muhammad was tried, convicted and sentenced to die for   capital murder in the shooting death of Dean Harold Myers, 53, of Gaithersburg, Md., while pumping gas at a Sunoco gas station just    outside of Manassas, Virginia[i] and capital murder in a series of terrorist-related shootings during a 47-day period in 2002[ii] that resulted in 10 deaths in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia.[iii]     

Prosecutors charged Muhammad with capital murder under a new Virginia penal code for multiple shootings when accompanied with intent to     intimidate a civilian population or government officials. The General Assembly in Richmond had passed the statute after the September 11   terrorist attacks and Gov. Mark Warner signed the bill into law in April 2002.[iv]

Prosecutors charged Muhammad with a second count of capital murder for killing more than one person within a three-year period, one count of illegal use of a firearm in the commission of capital murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder.  Muhammad pled innocent to all charges.

Due to the pretrial media publicity, Circuit Court Judge LeRoy F.

Millette moved the trial from Prince William County to Virginia Beach[v] and almost a year to the date of Muhammad’s arrest, the trial began on Oct. 20, 2003.[vi]   

Prosecution presented a large body of circumstantial evidence from other crimes, including testimony from victims of other shootings with cries for help on the phone and graphic painful details from medical examiners.  On Nov. 17, a jury found Muhammad guilty of all criminal charges.[vii]

During the penalty phase of the trial, Judge Millette rejected testimony from forensic psychologist Dr. Mark D. Cunningham who examined Muhammad in jail.  From his extensive visits, Cunningham had concluded that Muhammad suffered from neurological abnormalities and childhood trauma as a result of his mother’s early death as a boy, his father’s abandonment and childhood physical abuse at the hands of adult caretakers.  Muhammad had earlier refused prosecution mental health experts to interview him.   On Nov. 24, 2003, Muhammad was sentenced to death.[viii]   

A question of due process arose when Prince William prosecutors led by Paul B. Ebert argued in court that Muhammad was the leader of a two-man sniper team that shot Myers as well as 13 victims.[ix]  Meanwhile, Fairfax County authorities had also argued that Malvo, the second person in the team, acted with “independent” forethought in a clashing set of findings. In attaining two counts of capital murder, Prince William County prosecutors told the court that Muhammad directed all the shootings.  In like manner, Fairfax County said that it was Malvo who had acted “independently” and was guilty of capital murder for killing Linda Franklin, a Fairfax woman whose spouse testified during the victim impact statement phase of Muhammad’s trial.[x]  

Jurisdictions had initially fought over which prosecution team would be the first to try and convict Muhammad.  With the second-highest number of executions of any state since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, Virginia was awarded the first case by then-U.S. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft. The jury panel was death qualified; that is, every potential juror with any reluctance to hand down a death sentence was excluded. 

Virginia penal code precludes capital charges when a participant is not the actual triggerman, except murder-for-hire, murder involving terrorism and murder in the aid of racketeering.  When first arrested, Lee Boyd Malvo, the other shooter, confessed to Prince William County authorities that he shot and killed Myers.  The fingerprints on the .223-caliber M4 carbine linked to the Myers shooting belonged to Malvo, and no physical evidenced tied Muhammad to the rifle. Judge Millette ruled that even if Muhammad did not actually fire the shot that killed Myers, he was still eligible for the death penalty.  

On March 9, 2004, Judge Millette upheld the jury’s decision and the case was automatically sent to the Supreme Court of Virginia for review.[xi]  On April 22, 2005 in a 129-page decision, the Court upheld Muhammad’s conviction. A majority based their decision on “facts in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, the prevailing party in the trial.”  In the matter of the terrorism statute’s constitutionality, the Court unanimously ruled that Muhammad and Malvo acted like a “two-man sniper unit” and affirmed the terrorism-related death sentence.  On the triggerman rule, the Court split 4-3.  In dissenting, the justices noted the unique “distinction between principals of the first and second degree” and said the Commonwealth was barred from convicting Muhammad of capital murder because they never charged Muhammad as the shooter.[xii]  A bill to overturn the triggerman rule passed the General Assembly in February 2007 but was vetoed by Gov. Tim Kaine.[xiii]      

THE FAIRFAX CASE

The next jurisdiction to bring charges against Muhammad was Fairfax County.  Commonwealth Attorney Robert F. Horan, Jr. pursued a second capital indictment against Muhammad in the event the death-row conviction in Prince William County was overturned on appeal.  Muhammad’s lawyers argued that prosecuting Muhammad a second time for the same set of crimes constituted double jeopardy.  On Aug. 30, 2004, Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Jonathan C. Thacher ruled against the defense.[xiv] Although the first jury panel convicted Muhammad for terrorism-related murder based on image of a single shot to the face of a Fairfax woman and a victim statement from her spouse, the judge ruled that prosecuting Muhammad for the Fairfax woman for capital murder did not create double jeopardy.

Muhammad’s defense also argued that his right to a speedy trial had been denied when Fairfax County failed to hold a hearing before a judge.  He was indicted by a Fairfax County grand jury in November 2002.  In a  similar case in 1993, a Virginia appeals court had dismissed charges against a defendant because he had been denied a speedy trial.  The key to the higher court’s decision was a “detainer” sent by one jurisdiction to another asking that the prisoner be held in custody.  On Sept. 7, Judge Thacher visited Prince William County jail to review Muhammad’s file.[xv] When prosecutors learned of the trial judge’s investigation, they asked him to recuse himself from trial.   Although Judge Thacher defended his action, he recused himself on Sept. 21.[xvi] 

Circuit Judge M. Langhorne Keith, the new judge, held a hearing and heard evidence in the case.  Fairfax County officials had sent a police teletype to Prince William County jail officials in January 2004 asking them to hold Muhammad for trial.  Defense argued that the teletype represented a “detainer.”  On Oct. 1, 2004, Judge Keith agreed and dismissed capital murder charges against Muhammad ruling the fax represented an arrest warrant.[xvii] 

The Virginia Supreme Court affirmed Muhammad’s death sentence on April 22, 2005.[xviii] Prior to the Court’s decision, Spotsylvania County had indicated they would not charge Muhammad in the shooting death of a Philadelphia man at a gas station in Spotsylvania if the Supreme Court affirmed Muhammad’s death sentence.  Two weeks after the Court ruled, Hanover County also chose not to charge Muhammad for shooting and wounding a man outside a Ponderosa Steakhouse in Ashland Virginia. There are no other shooting victims in Virginia.

THE MONTGOMERY COUNTY MARYLAND CASES

Muhammad faced charges in Montgomery County Maryland for the shooting slayings of six people.  Montgomery County State’s Attorney Douglas F. Gansler agreed not to ask for the death penalty and charged Muhammad with six counts of first-degree murder. Muhammad asked Montgomery County Circuit Judge James L. Ryan for permission to represent himself and on March 29, 2006,[xix] the judge ruled that Muhammad had a constitutional right to be his own attorney.  On May 1, the trial started in Rockville, Maryland with a jury of five men and seven women.  The trial lasted less than a month with three Baltimore attorneys serving as standby counsel. The jury panel deliberated less than six hours and on May 30, 2006, they found  Muhammad guilty of all six charges.  Two days later, Judge Ryan sentenced Muhammad to six consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. 

WASHINGTON, DC

On Oct. 3, 2002, Pascal Charlot, 72, was shot and killed while waiting for a bus in Washington, DC. Lee Boyd Malvo, the convicted sniper co-conspirator, told police officials he shot and killed Charlot.  There are no death penalty statutes in the District, although federal jurisdiction could avail capital murder charges in the case.[xx]   

ARIZONA

Pima County prosecutors declined to indict Muhammad for the 2002 shooting death of 50-year old Jerry Taylor at a golf course in Tucson.  During trial for the Montgomery County shootings, Malvo had confessed to police officials that he and Muhammad killed Taylor. Chief Criminal Deputy Attorney opted not to prosecute Muhammad since he had been convicted and sentenced to die in Virginia.  There is no statute of limitation for murder in Arizona.[xxi]

POSSIBLE FUTURE CAPITAL MURDER CHARGES IN OTHER JURISDICATIONS

John Allen Muhammad faces possible future capital murder charges in the states of Washington, Alabama and Louisiana arising from sniper shootings tied to Muhammad beginning in 2002.

WASHINGTON

On Feb. 16, 2006, Keenya Cook, 21, of Tacoma Washington was fatally shot in the head by a single bullet from a .45-caliber handgun as she answered the door to her aunt’s house.  The shooting was later linked to sniper shootings by way of Earl Dancy Jr., a friend of Muhammad who owned the gun and later testified that he had routinely lent his weapons to Muhammad. Cook was the niece of a former bookkeeper for Muhammad’s auto business. Mental health officials testified during Lee Boyd Malvo’s trial in Virginia that he had confessed to being the shooter. Pierce County Prosecutor Gerry Horn decided in 2002 not to pursue charges.[xxii]    

ALABAMA

On Sept. 21, 2002, Claudine Lee Parker, 52, of Montgomery and Kellie Adams, 27, of Montgomery, were shot while closing the liquor store where they both worked.  Parker was killed and Adams was wounded with a .22-caliber handgun found at the scene and later linked to the sniper shootings in Maryland.[xxiii]  

LOUISIANA

On Sept. 23, 2002, Hong Im Ballenger, 45, of Baton Rouge, was shot in the head outside the beauty-products store she managed and later died. A witness testified that she saw Lee Boyd Malvo at the scene of the crime.[xxiv]