CrimLaw

Malvo:

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The psychiatrist discussed how Muhammad and Malvo had planned their attacks:

John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo scouted about 100 different locations in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia as they prepared for last fall's sniper rampage, according to testimony from a psychiatrist at Malvo's capital murder trial this morning.

The plan "was basically to go to different places and keep the authorities not knowing where the next shooting was going to occur," said Dr. Neil Blumberg, who spent about 50 hours interviewing Malvo to evaluate his mental state at the time of the shootings.

The testimony about the day the child was shot was disturbing:

Blumberg also said that Muhammad planned to shoot three to five children on the morning that he shot a 13-year-old boy at a middle school in Bowie. Muhammad and Malvo had scouted three schools in the area and chose Benjamin Tasker Middle because of the woods near the school and favorable terrain, Blumberg said.

"He said he didn't like the idea, but Muhammad said 'Let's do it.' He went along with it," Blumberg testified today. "Muhammad's plan was to shoot between three and five children. Not to kill them -- no head shots -- but he said the plan was to have a ripple effect."

The boy shot at the school, Iran Brown, was hit in the abdomen and survived. No one else was shot that day. Blumberg did not say if Malvo told him why Muhammad deviated from the plan. He testified that Malvo said he was in the car acting as the spotter for that school shooting, while Muhammad fired from the woods.

Is the information Malvo gave to the psychiatrist credible?

The psychiatrist said Malvo's account was credible because Malvo acknowledged involvement in all of the sniper shootings and admitted being the shooter in one, the October 22, 2002, shooting of bus driver Conrad Johnson in Aspen Hill, Maryland. He also admitted to killing Keenya Cook in Tacoma, Washington, in February 2002.

Fairfax County prosecutor Robert Horan Jr. questioned whether Malvo admitted to shooting Johnson and Cook to avoid facing the death penalty. Maryland and Washington do not allow execution of people convicted of crimes committed as juveniles, while Virginia does.

"Do you think he was smart enough to know ... that he couldn't get the death penalty in Maryland for shooting Conrad Johnson?" Horan asked.

Blumberg said Malvo could have been aware of that, but that he did not believe it affected Malvo's statements.

Horan then asked Blumberg if Malvo knew he couldn't face the death penalty in Washington state.

"I don't know if he knew about that," Blumberg said.

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Defense psychiatrist Neil Blumberg testified that Malvo's initial statements claiming responsibility occurred while he was still under Muhammad's influence. He added that if Malvo was lying later it didn't make sense for him to still admit he was the triggerman in two killings.

"Someone who's lying or malingering - why not deny everything?" Blumberg said.

The psychiatrist also went thru some of the shootings as laid out by Malvo:

Under cross examination by Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr., Blumberg relayed Malvo's description of the first slaying that day in Montgomery County. The victim was James L. Buchanan, 39, who was shot while pushing a lawnmower near a car dealership.

"He saw him pushing a lawn mower," Blumberg said. "There was no one around. He said he was driving and Muhammad was in the trunk. He said they were only 60 or 70 yards away. He said he saw Mr. Buchanan grab his chest. He then ran and dropped. . . . He and Muhammad switched seats and he broke down the weapon and Muhammad drove off."

The next victim that morning was Premkumar A. Walekar, 54, who was shot in the chest while pumping gas at a gas station in Aspen Hill, Md.

"He said they were parked across the street in the parking lot of a strip mall over 100 yards away," Blumberg said, "The station was busy. There were lots of targets and Muhammad shot and they left."

The first four shootings were in Maryland. The final killing of the day was in the District. Blumberg said Malvo told him that Muhammad wanted to kill someone in Washington because residents of the District were starting to "feel safe."

And the psychiatrist also testified as to the defects that were foreshadowed by Malvo's actions as a youth:

As a child, Malvo killed stray cats with a slingshot beginning at age 8 or 9 and continued the anti-social behavior for nearly five years, Neil Blumberg testified at Malvo's capital murder trial.

Malvo also regularly stole comic books and compact discs, said Blumberg.

. . .

On Wednesday, Blumberg testified that Malvo's mental diseases left him "psychologically numb" and legally insane because he couldn't tell right from wrong.

Blumberg's statements under cross-examination echo earlier testimony from a defense psychologist who said Malvo killed cats as a child. Blumberg said Malvo had grown to hate cats because his mother frequently beat him after Malvo's pet cat would soil his sheets.

The psychiatrist said shoplifting and cat-killing were signs of a childhood conduct disorder that combined with later mental illness to make Malvo "unable to distinguish between right and wrong" and "unable to resist the impulse" to commit the sniper killings in 2002.

Malvo also suffered from depression and a dissociative disorder that allowed him to tune out reality, lose his sense of identity and become vulnerable to Muhammad's wishes and "intense, coercive persuasion," Blumberg testified.