Sniper Malvo expresses remorse

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Lee Boyd Malvo, a convicted sniper who terrorized the Washington area in 2002, says he feels intense guilt and shame over his actions five years ago.

Malvo and fellow sniper John Allen Muhammad killed 10 people over a 23-day period.

However, Malvo said in a letter to CNN that he is still "grappling with shame, guilt, remorse and my own healing if that will ever be possible," the network reported.

Carmeta Albarus-Lindo, Malvo's social worker, said prison has changed the former sniper for the better.

She said he will "never forgive himself for what has happened."

"The most I can do is to continue to be there, because that is his greatest fear -- that, you know, another parental figure would abandon him because that was what he'd been exposed to all his life," Albarus-Lindo said. She said Malvo saw Muhammad as a surrogate father and even continued to call him "dad" for several months after his conviction.

Muhammad's ex-wife, Mildred, said she believes her former husband brainwashed the younger man into helping him commit the crimes.

"That boy was a victim before he even knew it," she said. "His life was over when he said, 'Hi.'"

Malvo is serving a life sentence at Red Onion prison in Virginia.