Malvo admits murder
Lee Boyd Malvo on Tuesday avoided facing the death penalty in a case in Spotsylvania County, the only jurisdiction in Virginia where he still faced execution.
Under an agreement with Commonwealth’s Attorney William Neely, Malvo pleaded guilty to capital murder and attempted capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole on each count. Several other charges against Malvo were dropped, including malicious wounding and conspiracy.
In Spotsylvania, a county about 60 miles south of Washington, D.C., Malvo, 19, and his co-defendant, John Allen Muhammad, are charged with killing a Philadelphia businessman, Kenneth Bridges, 53, and trying to kill a local woman, Caroline Seawell, then 43.
Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, which was cinched with a belt that can deliver an electric shock, Malvo told Circuit Court Judge William Ledbetter that he understood the charges against him and was pleading guilty to killing Bridges and wounding Seawell.
Also Tuesday, Neely announced that he is not currently pursuing a case against Muhammad because he “can only be executed once.” Muhammad has already been convicted and sentenced to death in a separate shooting in Prince William County. Neely said Spotsylvania could not afford what he estimated would be a $2 million trial for each suspect.
However, Neely said he believed he has the right to pick up the Muhammad case again in the future if Muhammad somehow has his earlier death penalty overturned.
Compared to the first trials of Muhammad and Malvo last year, Tuesday’s sentencing was very low key, with a 200-seat auditorium set up by county officials empty. The 70 seats in the courtroom were mostly taken by news media representatives. No shooting victims or their families were present. But Neely said both Seawell’s and Bridges’ family agreed to his decision about the plea arrangement with Malvo and the decision not to press charges now against Muhammad.
About 2:30 p.m. Oct. 4, 2002, Seawell, a mother of two, was shot and wounded while loading packages into the back of her minivan parked outside a Michaels craft store. A week later, at 9:28 a.m. Oct. 11, Bridges, a father of six, was shot to death when he stopped for gas.
Seawell and Bridges were the seventh and 10th of 13 people shot during the three-week series of shootings in the Washington region that claimed 10 lives. Charges are pending against Malvo and Muhammad in four other jurisdictions where killings occurred: Maryland, the District of Columbia, Alabama and Louisiana.
Craig Cooley, one of Malvo’s attorneys, said he initiated talks with Neely’s office a few months ago. “We’re trying to close doors wherever we can,” he said.
But much of the legal future of the convicted snipers is unclear.
Malvo’s status in Virginia and in other states rests on whether the U.S. Supreme Court rules that it is unconstitutional to execute killers who were 16 or 17 at the time of their crimes. Malvo was 17 when the shootings took place. Prosecutors in Prince William County say they are waiting for that ruling, and Cooley said the same is true in Louisiana and Alabama.