);

Malvo to Plead Guilty in Spotsylvania

Sniper Lee Boyd Malvo has agreed with Spotsylvania CountyCommonwealth’s attorney, William Neely, “to pleadguilty to capital murder and attempted capital murder and besentence to life in prison without parole,” said CraigCooley, one of Malvo’s attorneys.

 

Neely has been the only prosecutor who hasbeen willing to offer Malvo, 19, a deal to avoid a trial that willcost $2 million. The deal includes several other charges to bedropped like malicious wounding and conspiracy, Cooley said.

 

Spotsylvania County, 60 miles from Washington,is where Malvo and John Allen Muhammad are being charged withkilling a Philadelphia businesswoman, Kenneth Bridges, 53 andCaroline Seawell, a 43-year-old local woman. Seawell, victim numberseven, was shot at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 4, 2002, whileloading packages into the back of her minivan at a Michaels craftstore. Bridges, victim number 10, was shot on Oct. 11, 2002 whilestopped at a gas station.

 

Malvo’s fate rests in the SupremeCourt’s ruling on whether it is unconstitutional to executekillers who were 16 or 17 years of age at the time of theircrime.

 

Prosecutors in Prince William’s County,the state of Louisiana and Alabama are awaiting the decision, sinceMalvo was 17 when the shootings took place. The decision will alsoaffect the Hanover County case where both Malvo and Muhammad havebeen indicted in the wounding of Jeffrey Hopper, then 37, outsidePonderosa steakhouse in Ashland.

 

Malvo has already been sentenced to a lifesentence in the Oct. 24, 2002 murdering of FBI analyst LindaFranklin, 47, in Fairfax County. The Fairfax County’s casewas dismissed this month because a judge ruled that prosecutors hadviolated the state’s speedy trial law by not trying himwithin five month of issuing a detainer.

 

Charges against Malvo and Muhammad are alsopending in DC, Montgomery County, Maryland, Alabama andLouisiana.