Convicted sniper may testify in accomplice's trial

CHESAPEAKE, Va. -- Convicted sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad could find himself in another courtroom this week, this time as a witness in the trial of his alleged partner in crime, an 18-year-old who sees him as a father figure.\nLee Boyd Malvo's lawyers have asubpoenaed Muhammad and plan to call him to the stand this week.\nWhether he will be willing to testify remains to be seen, however. Muhammad, whose trial ended last week with a Virginia Beach jury recommending the death sentence, still faces prosecution in several other states.\nAny testimony by Muhammad in Malvo's trial could provide fodder for those prosecutions. His attorneys also hope to get the death sentence overturned on appeal or reduced by the trial judge when Muhammad is formally sentenced in February.\nMalvo prosecutor Robert F. Horan Jr. said last week that the chance Muhammad will take the stand in Malvo's case is "zero."\nBut Malvo's lawyer, Craig Cooley, said he had not received any notification from Muhammad's lawyers that they would try to quash the subpoena.\n"We'd like to hear the truth," Cooley said when asked what information he wants from Muhammad.\nMuhammad's lawyers could try to quash the subpoena and prevent Muhammad from even showing up in court. He also could appear in court but invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.\nTogether, Muhammad and Malvo are accused of killing 10 people and wounding six in a three-week sniper spree through the Washington area last fall, but each was being tried for capital murder in connection with only one killing. Muhammad was convicted in the slaying of Dean Harold Meyers, shot while pumping gas in Manassas. Malvo is being tried in the killing of FBI analyst Linda Franklin, shot outside a Falls Church store.\nThe two men also are accused in earlier shootings in Washington state, Arizona, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana.\nIn the first week and a half of Malvo's trial, jurors heard interrogation tapes of the teenager bragging about his shooting skill and telling authorities he pulled the trigger in all the sniper attacks. They also heard testimony from relatives, friends and former teachers of Malvo who described him as an obedient and cheerful boy who appeared emotionally vulnerable.\nMalvo's lawyers are presenting an insanity defense, claiming their client was brainwashed by Muhammad, 42, and molded into a killer.\nMalvo's jury was sworn to avoid any publicity about Muhammad's case, but that's a difficult promise to follow with the intense national media coverage of the cases and the two trials held in courthouses just 15 miles apart.\nThe day after Muhammad's jury recommended the death sentence, The Virginian-Pilot ran the headline "IT'S DEATH" in type large enough to be read from many yards away.\nCooley said he takes jurors at their word that they have avoided any news accounts of the trials, but he also said he doesn't know how Muhammad's conviction and recommended death sentence might influence jurors if they were aware.\nOn the one hand, a jury might feel pressure to reach the same verdict. On the other, if jurors are reticent to recommend execution for a defendant who was 17 at the time of the sniper attacks, the Muhammad verdict may in a sense let them off the hook.\n"I think you could make a good argument both ways whether it's a benefit or a detriment," Cooley said.