Sniper Gets Six Life Terms

Convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad was sentenced to six consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole Thursday.

“You, Mr. Muhammad, have no hope. You have no future. You will spend every day for the rest of your life locked in a cage,” Judge James L. Ryan said. “You chose the wrong county to stain with your acts of violence.”

Muhammad, 45, looked grim as the sentence was read, and some in the audience applauded. He did not speak and was taken from the Montgomery County courtroom in handcuffs.

A jury convicted Muhammad after 4 1/2 hours of deliberation Tuesday for the murders of six Maryland sniper victims during the 2002 rampage.

Muhammad is already on death row in Virginia for sniper shootings there, but prosecutors have said that life sentences in Maryland all but ensure that he will spend the rest of his life in prison in the event the Virginia conviction is overturned on appeal.

Muhammad was taken from the courtroom to a prison in Waverly, Va., said Darren Popkin, Montgomery County’s chief deputy sheriff.

Maryland prosecutors decided against seeking a death sentence because they were not confident the crimes would meet the language of the state’s capital punishment statute, and because the appeals would be costly and time-consuming.

Three jurors were in the audience for the sentencing. One, who gave only her first name, Debbie, said she thought Muhammad deserved the death penalty.

“It was very clear to us that this man was guilty,” said the juror, an office manager from Gaithersburg. “You could see the anger within him.”

Several relatives of victims spoke before the sentencing, including Nelson Rivera, who described how his young daughter wanted to die so she could be reunited with her mother, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera.

“He not only killed my wife, he killed me, he killed my daughter and all the rest of the family,” Rivera said in a soft and halting voice.

The sentencing ended a bizarre, nearly four-week trial in which a condemned man seemed to enjoy standing at the defense table flanked by his legal team for advice and by a tactical team for security.

“I think it was a performance,” said State’s Atty. Douglas F. Gansler, a candidate for Maryland attorney general. “He had no defense.”

Lee Boyd Malvo, Muhammad’s admitted accomplice who testified against him, agreed to plead guilty to the same charges for which Muhammad was convicted.

Gansler said Malvo approached prosecutors about testifying and did not seek a promise of leniency when he is sentenced later this year.