Both D.C. sniper defendants convicted; who pulled the trigger

CHESAPEAKE, Va. -- Both snipers have been convicted, but the verdicts have left a nagging question: Which of them pulled the trigger in the shootings that killed 10 people and wounded three others in and around the nation's capital in October 2002?

In convicting Lee Boyd Malvo of murder, a jury determined he fired the head shot that killed Linda Franklin as she stood by her car.

Finding Malvo to be the triggerman was necessary to convict the 18-year-old on one of two murder counts, and the guilty verdict indicated the jury believed Malvo's initial confession that he was the sniper in all the shootings, though he later denied most of the responsibility.

"I believe he was the triggerman in all of them," said juror William Hurdle.

A different jury convicted John Allen Muhammad, 42, of the murder of Dean Meyers at a gas station, but with a different set of rules; it did not have to find that he pulled the trigger in order to convict him.

The verdicts don't necessarily conflict, but legal experts say the whole truth may never be known.

"The facts in criminal cases can be very messy," said Scott Sundby, a professor at Washington & Lee University law school in Lexington, Va. "We tend to think of trials as TV shows or movie scripts, where we will know by the end who did what and for what reason. That's usually not really the case."

Bragged about shootings

Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, calmly told police after his arrest that he fired all the shots during the three-week series of attacks. He bragged about how difficult the head shots were, described how the victims fell, and said he only wounded 13-year-old Iran Brown instead of hitting him in the head because the boy moved.

Months later, Malvo began giving defense psychiatrists and psychologists a different account. He admitted shooting 35-year-old bus driver Conrad Johnson, the final sniper victim, but denied being the shooter in the other attacks.

Prosecutors contended Malvo's initial story was the truth, but defense attorneys argued that Malvo lied to protect Muhammad, a man he saw as a father figure, and then told psychiatrists the truth as he emerged from Muhammad's psychological spell.

Muhammad refused to speak to police and mental health experts and did not testify.

"Our ability to access the past is always problematic, and especially when there's two people and one of them is talking and the other isn't," said Anne Coughlin, a University of Virginia law school professor.

However, she said, "We know enough. The state produced sufficient, credible evidence that testified to what these men did, what their differing roles were, and that they are roughly equal in terms of culpability."

Forensic experts found Malvo's DNA and fingerprints on the rifle used in the killings. DNA consistent with Muhammad's also was found on the gun, and forensics linked Muhammad to a telescopic sight found in the car in which the two were arrested.

Witnesses described seeing both Muhammad and Malvo near crime scenes around the times of the shootings, although no one ever saw who fired the gun.

Virginia is rare among states in that it normally restricts death sentences to people convicted of physically carrying out killings, the so-called triggerman rule, Sundby said.

The judge in Malvo's trial stuck close to the rule, telling jurors they had to find that Malvo pulled the trigger in Franklin's slaying in order to convict him of the multiple murder charge and make him eligible for a death sentence on that count.

But the judge in Muhammad's trial allowed the definition of triggerman in the multiple-murder charge to be extended to someone "integrally involved in the crime," Sundby said.

"There is some precedent for expanding that definition, but Muhammad's case definitely pushed it," and is likely to be a point of contention during appeals, Sundby said.

Muhammad's jury last month recommended the death penalty; Malvo's jury last week voted for life in prison.

Coughlin agreed that it is unusual for a Virginia defendant to get a death sentence without having been specifically designated the triggerman, but not for a case to end without the public actually knowing who pulled the trigger.

"I think people close to these crimes, the family members of victims and the family members of the defendants, will always be left with questions," Coughlin said.

"However," he said, "the theory that the state came up with, that John Muhammad was the idea man, the mastermind, and that Malvo was the enthusiastic partner; the state proved that story beyond a reasonable doubt to two juries."

In all, Malvo and Muhammad have been linked to 20 shootings, including 13 deaths in Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Washington, D.C. Prosecutors in Alabama and Louisiana have already said they intend to put the two men on trial for the killings in their states, as well.