BREAKING NEWS

MD Jury finds DC Area Sniper Guilty
from Breitbart.com

Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad was convicted of six more of the killings Tuesday after a trial in which he acted as his own attorney and the prosecution's star witness was his young protege and partner in crime. Muhammad, 45, is already under a death sentence in Virginia for a killing there. The most he can get for the six Maryland slayings is life in prison without parole.

The jury took slightly more than four hours to convict him after a four-week trial. As the verdict was read, Muhammad sat grim-faced, his arms folded across chest. He was led out of the courtroom, pausing to ask the judge, "Your honor, may I speak?" The judge answered, "No sir," and Muhammad was taken away.

The trial marked the first time Lee Boyd Malvo testified against the man prosecutors say was his mentor and manipulator. During two days of testimony last week, Malvo, 21, gave the first inside account of the shootings and described Muhammad's elaborate plans for a reign of terror.
According to Malvo, Muhammad planned two phases of attacks - six shootings a day for a month, followed by a wave of bombings of schools, school buses and children's hospitals.

Muhammad hoped to extort $10 million from authorities and use the money to set up a school in Canada to teach homeless children how to use guns and explosives and use violence to shut down other cities.

Maryland prosecutors said they needed to put Muhammad on trial as insurance in case his conviction in Virginia was overturned. Some of the victims' families had also sought a second trial, seeking an explanation for the random slayings that targeted people as they went shopping, gassed up their cars and mowed lawns near the nation's capital.