Sniper accused tells jury the ‘meaning of truth’

SNIPER suspect John Allen Muhammad won a surprise request yesterday to represent himself at trial and delivered a rambling opening statement in which he quoted Jesus and spoke about the meaning of truth.

“One of the things we’re here for today is to find out what everyone wants to know. What happened?” Muhammad told the jury. “There’s three truths. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I always thought there was just one truth.”

He added, “Jesus said, ‘Ye shall know the truth.’ The facts should help us identify what’s a lie, what’s not a lie,” he said.

In the first five minutes of his statement, Muhammad, wearing a suit and tie, said nothing directly about the sniper attack of which he is accused.

“I know what happened. I know what didn’t happen. They’re basing what they said about me on a theory,” he said.

He also said he hopes to be found innocent “by the grace of Allah”.

Muhammad, 42, is charged with capital murder in the slaying of Dean Harold Meyers, a 53-year-old Vietnam veteran who was gunned down outside a northern Virginia gas station last October. Meyers was the seventh victim of a three-week shooting spree that left 10 people dead in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC.

He was arrested 15 days later with fellow-suspect Lee Boyd Malvo.