Sniper convicted

last updated 8 January 2015

Virginia Beach

John Allen Muhammad was found guilty this week of one of the sniper murders that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area last year. Muhammad became the first person to be convicted under Virginia’s new terrorism law; prosecutors said he and Lee Boyd Malvo, 18, had tried to spread panic so the government would pay them $10 million to stop. Malvo is on trial in nearby Chesapeake, Va., for one of the other 10 murders. Prosecutors say Malvo and Muhammad worked as a two-man team, picking their targets at random. Jurors found Muhammad guilty after just six hours of deliberations, and then immediately began debating whether he should be put to death. “Your decision will put John Muhammad in a box of one form or another,” his lawyer told jurors. “One is made of concrete. And one is made of pine.”