D.C.-area sniper John Allen Muhammad executed; victims included former Bollinger County man

JARRATT, Va. -- John Allen Muhammad, the mastermind of the sniper attacks that terrorized the nation's capital region for three weeks in October 2002, was executed Tuesday.

Muhammad died by injection at 8:11 p.m. at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, prison spokesman Larry Traylor said.

He said Muhammad had no final statement and that he didn't hear Muhammad utter any words during the execution.

Muhammad was executed for killing Dean Harold Meyers, who was shot in the head at a Manassas gas station during a spree that left 10 dead across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

One of the victims, James Martin, had ties to Bollinger County. He had worked at the Wallis Store and Lutes and Hartle Hardware Store in Lutesville, Mo., during high school and graduated from Woodland High School in 1965. He graduated Southeast Missouri State University in 1969.

Martin, who at the time was living in Silver Spring, Md., was killed at about 6 p.m. Oct. 2, 2002, in the parking lot of Shoppers Food Warehouse grocery store in Wheaton, Md.

"He happened to be there when they was wanting to kill someone," said Tom Ossig of Marble Hill, Mo. Ossig was Martin's roommate in college, and they were "like brothers," he said.

"My mother had passed away before he got killed, but it would have been extremely hard on her, I know," he said. "It was hard on all of us."

After he graduated from Southeast, Martin enlisted in the Navy, Ossig said. He was stationed in the D.C. area, got married and stayed there. Martin was working as a program analyst at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration when the shooting occurred.

"Jim was a good guy, and he didn't deserve that," Ossig said. "Nobody does."

Ossig followed Muhammad's case and said he is glad the shooter received the death penalty.

"I will definitely feel better tomorrow knowing he's not here anymore," he said Tuesday.

The shootings terrorized the region, as victim after victim was shot down while doing everyday chores: going shopping, pumping gas, mowing the lawn. One child was shot while walking into his middle school.

People stayed indoors. Those who did go outside weaved as they walked or bobbed their heads to make themselves a less easy target.

The shootings ended Oct. 24, 2002, when police captured Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, as they slept at a Maryland rest stop in a car they had outfitted for a shooter to perch in its trunk without being detected.

Muhammad and Malvo also were suspected of fatal shootings in other states, including Louisiana, Alabama and Arizona. Malvo was sentenced to life in prison.

The U.S. Supreme Court turned down Muhammad's final appeal Monday, and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine denied clemency Tuesday.

Cheryll Witz was one of several victims' family members who traveled to Virginia to watch the execution. Malvo confessed that he shot her father, Jerry Taylor, on a Tucson, Ariz., golf course in March 2002 at Muhammad's direction.

"He basically watched my dad breathe his last breath," she said. "Why shouldn't I watch his last breath?"

Muhammad met with family members in the hours before his execution but did not have a spiritual adviser, Traylor said.

J. Wyndal Gordon, one of Muhammad's attorneys, said, "It's just a tragic situation all around."

Earlier, Gordon had described Muhammad as fearless and insisted he was innocent.

"He is absolutely unafraid and he will die with dignity -- dignity to the point of defiance," Gordon said.

Staff writer Alaina Busch contributed to this report.