Malvo’s murder test was in Tacoma, expert says

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, December 9, 2003

CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo’s first test, a psychologist testified Tuesday, reportedly came in Tacoma. Could he convince his mentor that he could follow orders and murder without emotion? He approached a home in a quiet residential neighborhood and knocked. A 21-year-old woman answered. Malvo shot her in the face.

Keenya Cook was not the intended victim. Her aunt, against whom convicted Washington, D.C.-area sniper John Allen Muhammad held a grudge, was. But when Cook was shot Feb. 16, 2002, clinical psychologist Dewey Cornell of the University of Virginia said, Malvo was told he had passed the test.

Cook’s death allegedly launched the cross-country murderous rampage of Muhammad and Malvo, then 17, that culminated eight months later with the deaths of 10 random victims around the U.S. capital.

Muhammad, 42, was convicted of capital murder last month in nearby Virginia Beach; Malvo’s trial entered its 18th day Tuesday, with the defense preparing to rest its case. His jury could recommend the death penalty, as a separate jury did for Muhammad.

Cornell, who recounted Malvo’s description of Cook’s murder, spent 54 hours interviewing the teenager in jail. "He told me that John Muhammad wanted her (the aunt) killed and that it was a test of his ability to carry out violence," the psychologist testified.

Over two days on the witness stand, Cornell said that Malvo was suffering from dissociative disorder — meaning he was out of touch with reality — at the time of the sniper attacks. The disorder, he said, qualifies as a mental disease under Virginia law.

Malvo has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and his defense contends the teenager was manipulated and indoctrinated by Muhammad to the point where he could not distinguish between right and wrong.

Cornell also testified that Malvo told him he was the triggerman only in the murder of bus driver Conrad Johnson — the last sniper victim. In the other attacks, he was Muhammad’s spotter, Cornell said.

On his taped confessions to investigators immediately after his arrest, Malvo had said that he shot all 10 Washington-area victims.

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