Younger sniper suspect Malvo ‘ intended to kill them all’

“I INTENDED to kill them all.”

This was the chilling audiotape played for the jury in which a soft-spoken then 17-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo told police he pulled the trigger in all of the sniper attacks that terrified the Washington area last fall.

Malvo, now 18, is on trial on charges of murdering FBI analyst Linda Franklin, who was cut down by a bullet outside a Home Depot.

He could get the death penalty if convicted. Ten people died and three were wounded during the three-week sniper spree in Washington, Maryland and Virginia.

Several times during the tape, Malvo’s interrogator, Samuel Walker, a detective with the Prince William County police department, is heard asking Malvo to speak up.

When the officer asked Malvo whether he squeezed the trigger in all the shootings, Malvo first responded: “Basically, yeah.” Asked to clarify, Malvo said: “In all of them.”

Walker focused on the Meyers slaying, eliciting through a series of questions that Malvo shot Meyers in the head because Meyers was standing sideways.

“His body twisted this way, so I couldn’t get a body shot,” Malvo said.

“He went down,” Malvo said when Walker asked what happened to Meyers after the shot was fired.

Malvo’s attorneys contend Malvo is innocent by reason of insanity because he was brainwashed by John Allen Muhammad and they do not dispute that he took part in the shootings. Malvo told police that the sniper shootings were part of a strategy to throw the region into chaos and even bring martial law until the suspects got what they wanted.

In the interrogation tape, Malvo says the shootings would have continued until he and Muhammad received the pay-off they sought. Prosecutors say the shootings were part of a scheme to extort $10 million from the government.

Malvo said the team chose the affluent suburb of Montgomery County, Maryland, as the starting point for the shooting spree that left 10 dead and three wounded because “it’s perfect”. He said he expected everyone to “pitch in” with the money. “It, it’s a strategy. It, it’s the whole way to get you to the curve.

The boys with the money are gonna say, look, how much are they asking for. We can make what a hundred million dollars in say a week. What is this for? Why are we doing this? This is futile. Give them what they want. Try and catch them somewhere else,” a transcript of the tape quotes Malvo. In nearby Virginia Beach, a jury heard more evidence on whether Muhammad should get the death penalty for masterminding the attacks.