Sniper Suspect, Officer Meet Again in Court

Less than half an hour after Dean Harold Meyers was felled by sniper fire a year ago, Virginia Police Officer Steven I. Bailey questioned the man who would later be arrested in his killing.

After a brief conversation just yards from the blood-pooled crime scene, Bailey let John Allen Muhammad drive off, convinced by the suspect that police had routed him into a nearby parking lot as part of their dragnet.

When the two men faced each other again Tuesday in a Virginia Beach courtroom, Muhammad, now acting as his own lawyer, inadvertently prodded Bailey into admitting he had been duped.

“Did that make sense to you?” Muhammad asked the Prince William County officer.

“I didn’t catch on,” a crestfallen Bailey said softly. “I wish I had.”

Three more sniper victims were killed in the Washington area in the days that followed Bailey’s encounter with Muhammad.

Bailey was among a parade of investigators and witnesses who testified Tuesday about evidence connecting Muhammad to Meyers’ killing at a Manassas, Va., Sunoco gas station on Oct. 9, 2002. Bailey’s account placed Muhammad in a restaurant lot near the crime scene right after the shooting, while other investigators said they found the sniper suspect’s fingerprints on a road map discarded there.

But pressed by Muhammad, investigators and witnesses conceded that no one saw him fire the long-range rifle shot that killed Meyers. “Did you ever see me with a weapon?” Muhammad asked Bailey.

“No sir,” the officer replied.

Links between Muhammad and other shootings in the Washington area sniper rampage also began to broaden during prosecution testimony. Muhammad, 42, and co-defendant Lee Boyd Malvo, 18, are charged with 13 shootings, including 10 killings in the Washington area. They are also tied to shootings in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Arizona and Washington state.

One survivor recalled being hit with a volley of gunfire after he left his Maryland restaurant in September 2002. “I waited for the shots to stop. It seemed like forever,” said Paul LaRuffa, his voice breaking as he stared in Muhammad’s direction.

LaRuffa could not describe his assailant, but investigators have charged that he was shot six times by Malvo. LaRuffa also identified a Sony Vaio laptop computer that was stolen from his car and recovered in an old Chevrolet Caprice that Muhammad and Malvo allegedly used as their mobile sniper’s nest.

On his second day of acting as his own lawyer, Muhammad did little to chip away at the growing web of scientific and circumstantial evidence being constructed against him. His queries to prosecution witnesses often produced meaningless details and perplexed answers.

At one point, Muhammad seized on a mention of yellow crowd-control tape used to cordon off the Manassas, Va., gas station where Meyers died. He repeatedly asked Prince William County Police Officer Anthony Notarintonio about the tape until the baffled policeman answered: “I was not responsible for putting the crime scene tape up myself.”

Still, after his shaky first day as a lawyer, Muhammad appeared to navigate the courtroom ably enough Tuesday that Circuit Court Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. gave him a guarded compliment. “Mr. Muhammad appears to be competently representing himself, appears to be asking questions appropriately, seems to understand his legal rights,” Millette said.

Prosecutors protested that Muhammad’s meager legal ability had been aided by the covert coaching of two defense lawyers he had replaced Monday. “It’s apparent the defendant cannot act as his own counsel,” said assistant prosecutor Richard Conway. “The current situation is intolerable.”

The judge agreed that Muhammad was getting too much advice, warning defense lawyers Peter Greenspun and Jonathan Shapiro that they could only confer with Muhammad when he requests their help.

At the start of Tuesday’s proceedings, Muhammad withdrew a request he had made that might have allowed him to introduce mental-health evidence. The judge had earlier barred Muhammad from using any psychiatric evidence after he refused to meet with a mental-health analyst working for the prosecution. Such evidence might have allowed Muhammad to plead insanity, a move already made by Malvo.

According to an official trial transcript cited in the Washington Post, Muhammad told the judge during a bench conference Monday that he had tried for months to persuade his defense team that he could handle his own case, but was ignored.

Warning Muhammad that he would not allow him to turn the trial into a soapbox, Millette said he was concerned that the 1991 Persian Gulf War veteran did not have the legal expertise to cross-examine witnesses and build a credible defense case.

“Tell me what it is in your background that makes you think you can adequately represent yourself,” Millette said at one point during the hushed discussion.

“Sir, I don’t think I can adequately represent myself,” Muhammad replied. “I know I can.”