CrimLaw

Sniper: Malvo:

The Defense played a tape of the custody hearing wherein Muhammad lost his children to his ex-wife for the jury. The prosecutor's response?

"It is absolutely a red herring in this case," Horan said. "They never made any try to kill her. Never. They were here on a totally different mission. This defendant said so."

Overruled.

Still, not everything went the Defense's way. Muhammad's ex-wife was not allowed to testify as to the death threats made against her by Muhammad. Still, the testimony sounds like it might have been somewhat effective:

In a firm voice Mildred Muhammad testified earlier before the jury that her husband was a very strict parent. "He was controlling," she said, "he was the disciplinarian, but his tactics were he had to have complete control of them."

Mildred Muhammad said she obtained a restraining order against her husband after he came to her house following the couple's separation and pushed her aside to get in the door so he could visit with his son, John Jr., who was ill at the time.

She also said after the separation that her husband had her phone number changed and didn't give her the new number. "Then he would say, 'Thought you would get away from me, didn't you?' " Mildred Muhammad testified.

She said that she called 911 on Oct. 11, 2002, when she saw a dark colored Chevrolet Caprice or Impala outside her home in Clinton, Md. "The driver just sat and stared," she said, "but the passenger had a newspaper that went up to cover his face."

The judge also turned down the Defense's request that Muhammad be transported to the court even though his attorneys have already told the Defense that he will not testify: "'Transporting (prisoners) around the state willy-nilly should be done sparingly' because of security risks, she said."

The Defense also called John D. Sewansker, a former classmate of Malvo, to testify about how Malvo behaved while he was in school. Sewansker "said the two were competitive in sports and studies, and that Malvo was eager to debate various issues. Malvo eventually began to debate the merits of Islam, which would get him in trouble with teachers at the school run by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church."