Sniper suspect rejects mental health move

Sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad withdrew a request today that might have allowed him to introduce mental health evidence at sentencing to persuade a jury to spare his life.

“I’ve changed my mind on that,” Muhammad told Circuit Judge LeRoy Millette Jr at the beginning of the second day of testimony in Virginia Beach.

Muhammad has been barred from presenting any mental health evidence because he refused to meet with prosecutors’ mental health expert.

Although Muhammad is not pursuing an insanity defence, testimony about his mental health might be considered by the jury as mitigating evidence if he is convicted to spare him the death penalty.

Lawyers for 18-year-old sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo intend to mount an insanity defence.

Muhammad is accused of shooting 53-year-old Dean Myers on October 9, 2002, the seventh victim

in a three-week shooting spree last October that left 10 people dead in the Washington, DC area.

Prince William County police office Steven Bailey testified today that Muhammad was “very polite and very courteous” when he was stopped as he drove his car out of a restaurant car park where authorities believed the sniper shot was fired.

Bailey said Muhammad told him police had actually directed him into the lot as they secured the crime scene. Bailey learned later that was untrue.

“I didn’t catch on. I wish I had,” Bailey told Muhammad during cross-examination.

Jason Salazar, a witness to the shooting, testified he heard the shot and saw Meyers lying in a pool of blood at a petrol pump.

He said he “went inside the store, dug down. We felt unsafe, scared” - bolstering the prosecution’s theory the sniper shootings amounted to acts of terrorism.

On cross-examination, Muhammad asked Salazar, “Can you recall seeing me at the area?” Salazar said he hadn’t.