Montgomery Co. judge considers transfer of DC sniper Lee Boyd Malvo for new sentence in Md. shootings

In this Oct. 26, 2004, file photo, Lee Boyd Malvo enters a courtroom in the Spotsylvania, Va., Circuit Court. Malvo was convicted of taking part as a teenager in deadly sniper attacks that terrorized the Washington area in 2002. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star via AP, File)

Lee Boyd Malvo appeared briefly in a Montgomery County, Maryland, courtroom, by video on Wednesday, as a circuit court judge considered how and when Malvo should return from Virginia to be resentenced for the six Maryland murders he and John Allen Muhammad committed in October 2002.

Malvo is currently serving four life sentences at Red Onion State Prison in Virginia for killings he, then 17, and Muhammad committed in Virginia, as part of a string of sniper shootings that terrorized the D.C. region. Muhammad was executed in Virginia in 2009.

Regarding the Maryland shootings, Malvo pleaded guilty in the killings of James Martin, Sonny Buchanan, Premkumar Walekar, Sarah Ramos, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera and Conrad Johnson, after testifying against his partner in Muhammad’s Montgomery County trial.

In 2006, a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge sentenced Malvo to six life sentences without the possibility of parole.

However, in August 2022, Maryland’s Court of Appeals ruled that Malvo had to be resentenced to comply with the a 2012 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that limited life sentences for juveniles,

During the brief hearing Wednesday, Montgomery County prosecutors told the judge they had provided documentation to be forwarded to attorneys for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Governors from Maryland and Virginia would need to approve Malvo’s transfer from Virginia to Maryland to be resentenced.

In September 2022, Virginia denied Malvo’s first application for parole. In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly passed a law in 2020 that created the possibility of parole for juvenile offenders, after serving 20 years of a life sentence.

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Neal Augenstein

Neal Augenstein has been a general assignment reporter with WTOP since 1997. He says he looks forward to coming to work every day, even though that means waking up at 3:30 a.m.

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