CHESAPEAKE, Va., Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Convicted Washington sniper John Allen Muhammad will not testify in the capital trial of Lee Boyd Malvo, according to Malvo's attorney.
Defense attorney Craig S. Cooley told Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Jane Marum Roush Monday that Muhammad's attorneys told him Muhammad would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights to not testify if he were called as a witness in the Malvo case, the Washington Post reported.
Cooley, a lead attorney of Malvo's defense team, had Muhammad subpoenaed to testify.
Muhammad was sentenced to death Nov. 24, for a Manassas, Va., killing -- one of 10 committed during the October 2002 shooting spree.
Malvo's attorneys had claimed their client was indoctrinated into Muhammad's "extreme brand of Islam" and brainwashed into joining the killing spree in the Washington area.
The lawyers said Malvo's childhood of abuse, neglect and isolation made him vulnerable to brainwashing when, at age 15, he was taken into care by Muhammad and smuggled into the United States, the Washington Times said.
Malvo faces the death penalty on two counts of capital murder in the fatal shooting of 47-year-old Linda Franklin.
