D.C. Sniper Gets 6 More Life Sentences

Judge Tells John Allen Muhammad: 'You Have No Future'

(CBS/AP)  John Allen Muhammad was sentenced Thursday to six consecutive life sentences for the October 2002 killings of six people during a sniper shooting spree that terrorized the Washington, D.C., region.

"You, Mr. Muhammad, have no hope. You have no future. You will spend every day for the rest of your life locked in a cage," said Montgomery County Circuit Judge James Ryan.

Muhammad showed no emotion, but stood with his head bowed as the sentence was announced. Some in the audience applauded.

A jury convicted Muhammad Tuesday after a four-week trial that featured testimony from Lee Boyd Malvo, his one-time surrogate son, who said Muhammad trained him with guns and drew him into a plan to kill people indiscriminately.

Muhammad is already on death row in Virginia for another sniper killing. Maryland prosecutors have said the additional life sentences are insurance if the Virginia conviction is ever overturned.

The jury took slightly more than four hours to convict him after a four-week trial in which he acted as his own attorney.

As the verdict was read, Muhammad stood grim-faced, his arms folded across chest. He was led out of the courtroom, pausing to ask the judge, "Your honor, may I speak?" The judge answered, "No, sir," and Muhammad was taken away.

Ten people in all were killed and three were wounded in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., in the string of shootings that gripped the metropolitan area with fear.

The trial marked the first time Malvo testified against the man prosecutors say was his mentor and manipulator. During two days of testimony last week, Malvo, 21, gave the first inside account of the shootings and described Muhammad's elaborate plans for a reign of terror (watch video).

According to Malvo, Muhammad had a two-phase plan — six shootings a day for a month, followed by a wave of bombings of schools, school buses and children's hospitals. Malvo said that when he asked Muhammad why, the older man replied: "For the sheer terror of it — the worst thing you can do to people is aim at their children."

Muhammad hoped to extort $10 million from authorities and use the money to set up a school in Canada to teach homeless children how to use guns and explosives and use violence to shut down other cities, Malvo said.

But even without testimony from the younger protégé, the guilty verdict would not have been surprising, said CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen.

"Maryland prosecutors had a strong case against Muhammad even without the testimony of his accomplice … whose testimony was credible and detailed and devastating to the Muhammad defense," he said.