US sniper suspect to represent himself

A judge today granted sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad’s surprise request to represent himself in his trial.

Circuit Judge LeRoy Millette Jr made the ruling as opening arguments were to begin in the trial of the man whose alleged shootings in the Washington-area a year ago terrified the region and riveted the country.

The trial is the first to come out of the crime spree that prosecutors have said was part of a plot to extort $10m (€8.6m) from the government.

Millette today instructed the 12-member jury that the defence lawyers that had been representing Muhammad would only be assisting him.

“His attorneys are now what is known as standby counsel,” Millette told the jury, which was chosen on Friday.

Prosecutors have not spelled out the order of their witnesses or evidence, but the other sniper suspect, 18-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo, was expected in court.

Prosecutors would not say why they summoned Malvo. He refused to testify at a recent hearing and instead invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination.

Muhammad, 42, is on trial in the killing of Dean Harold Meyers, a Vietnam combat 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.

Malvo and Muhammad were arrested together, sleeping in a car at a highway rest stop in Maryland.

Malvo is scheduled to go on trial next month in Chesapeke, Virginia, for shooting an FBI analyst.

Both men could face the death penalty if convicted.