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Lee Boyd Malvo (alias John Lee Malvo) (born February 18, 1985), along with John Allen Muhammad, was arrested on October 24, 2002 in connection with the Beltway sniper attacks. A jury convicted Malvo of capital murder on December 18, 2003, and recommended a sentence of life imprisonment without parole on December 23, 2003, which a judge formally agreed with on March 10, 2004.
Malvo was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to Una James, a seamstress, and Leslie Samuel Malvo, a mason. His parents were never married, and their relationship ended while Lee was an infant. His father rarely saw him after that, and his mother was often traveling to look for work. Lee was usually placed in the care of friends and relatives.
Lee appears to have attended high school under the name Lee Malvo in Jamaica before he and his mother emigrated to Antigua in 1998. His father said that this was when he last saw his son.
Una and Lee first met John Allen Muhammad in Antigua around 1999. Although Una and Muhammad were not intimately involved, they developed a strong friendship. Later, Una left Antigua for Fort Myers, Florida, using false documents. She left Lee with Muhammad, planning to have him follow her a few months later. Lee did join his mother for a short time in 2001. In 2002, Lee traveled to Bellingham, Washington, where he lived in a homeless shelter with Muhammad and enrolled in high school with Muhammad listed as his father. Classmates have said he was good in school, polite, well-dressed, and willing to state his opinions, but that he did not make any friends.
In the summer of 2002, Malvo and Muhammad were seen for a short time in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After the sniper shootings, Malvo was sent to jail in Fairfax County, Virginia. He was charged by the state of Virginia for two capital crimes: the murder of FBI analyst Linda Franklin "in the commission of an act of terrorism" (an addendum to Virginia law that was added after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks), and the murder of more than one person in a three-year period. He was also charged with the unlawful use of a firearm in the murder of Franklin. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to all charges on the grounds that he was under the total control of John Allen Muhammed. Most observers believe that the main purpose of the insanity defense was not to gain an acquittal but to introduce otherwise inadmissible evidence about Malvo's childhood and upbringing in order to humanize Malvo and make it more difficult for the jury to impose the death penalty.
After nearly 14 hours of deliberation, a jury in Chesapeake, Virginia, convicted him of both charges on December 18, 2003. On December 23, 2003, a jury sentenced Malvo to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of Franklin. On March 10, 2004, a judge agreed with the verdict and formally sentenced him to life in prison without parole.
During his trial, which was moved from Fairfax County to Chesapeake, Malvo at times seemed uninterested in the legal proceedings, drawing pictures of the judge, lawyers and other people in the courtroom. The presiding judge, Jane Marum Roush, joked with courtroom artists about this incident, stating that their art might have to compete with the defendant's for newspaper and TV coverage.
On October 26, 2004, Malvo entered an Alford plea to the charges of murdering Kenneth Bridges and attempting to murder Caroline Seawell. He also plead guilty to two firearms charges and agree not to appeal his conviction for the murder of Franklin. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for murder, plus eight years imprisonment for the weapons charges.
One Virginia prosecutor stated he would wait to decide whether to try him on capital charges in his jurisdiction until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on whether juveniles may be subject to the penalty of execution, an issue pending before the court. (Malvo was 17 years old when he committed his crimes.) According to newspaper reports, prosecutors in other states, including Alabama and Louisiana, are seeking Malva's extradition to face potential death-penalty charges for killings there.
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