Malvo: Muhammad Planned To Extort

John Allen Muhammad had plans that included six sniper shootings per day for a month, bombing school buses and establishing a community in Canada to train children to terrorize cities and "shut things down," accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo testified Tuesday.

Asked whether he believed Muhammad's plans, Malvo said yes.

"He's a man of his word. If he tells you he is going to do something, it is done," Malvo said. "If he says it, it is legit."

Malvo, who had never before taken the witness stand against his fellow sniper, gave the most detailed account yet of the planning that went into the three-week shooting spree that left 10 people dead at gas stations and parking lots.

He also squared off against the man who was once his surrogate father, a man who Malvo said once exerted so much control over him that Muhammad convinced him to take part in plans to terrorize the Washington region.

Malvo appeared calm when questioned by prosecutors, but he shifted uncomfortably when Muhammad, who is defending himself, began his cross-examination late Tuesday. Muhammad has referred to Malvo as his son throughout the four-week trial, but told Malvo he would refer to him as "Mr. Malvo" at prosecutor's request.

Asked by Montgomery County Deputy State's Attorney Katherine Winfree why he chose to testify against Muhammad, Malvo said, "I think he is a coward." He then glared at Muhammad.

"You took me into your house and you made me a monster," he said.

Muhammad was expected to continue his cross-examination of Malvo Wednesday.

At the trial, Malvo said Muhammad devised a two-phase plan to shoot as many as six random people each day for 30 days in the Washington area and then target children and police officers with explosives. They planned to place explosives on school buses in Baltimore, kill a Baltimore police officer and then set off explosives packed with ball bearings at the officer's funeral.

The level of planning left friends and family of victims shaking their heads, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart.

"This is more of a shock than anything else because it was so calculated," said Mary Branch. "It tells you a lot about what happened. We didn't know exactly how detailed they were."

When Malvo asked Muhammad why he planned to target children, he said, "For the sheer terror of it — the worst thing you can do to people is aim at their children."

Just the before Muhammad, 45, and Malvo, now 21, were arrested at a Myersville rest stop Oct. 24, 2002, Malvo said Muhammad had become so frustrated at police response to the shootings that he decided to implement phase two.

Midway through the spree, Malvo said, Muhammad described the plans to take money they would extort from authorities to end the sniper shootings and establish a Canadian commune to train 140 homeless children in terrorist shooting and bombings to "continue the mission" in other cities.

"If you train people with explosives, you get six people with suppressors just terrorizing a city, each getting at least 10 people a day and you have 140 people like that all over the country, you can just shut things down."

After the Oct. 9, 2002, shooting of Dean Meyers in Manassas, Va., Muhammad was upset that the two were not meeting their self-imposed quota of six shootings a day. Malvo said he became upset and refused to talk to Muhammad. At one point, Malvo said he put on headphones, listened to music and refused to acknowledge Muhammad.

Muhammad responded angrily and told Malvo "I'm not going to deal with it. When people have doubts is when they get caught."

They already have been convicted in Virginia for a sniper murder there. Muhammad received a death sentence while Malvo was given a life term.

Prosecutors in Maryland have said they are pursuing a second trial in case the Virginia conviction is overturned on appeal and to provide justice in Montgomery County, where six of the 10 killings occurred.

The last time the two came face-to-face was in October 2003, when Malvo was brought in at Muhammad's first trial. Malvo refused to testify, invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination.

Before testifying, Malvo told the judge that he intends to plead guilty to murder charges against him in Montgomery County. In return, he will receive six life sentences.

Muhammad said in his opening statement that both he and Malvo were innocent and that they were merely roaming the area looking for Muhammad's children who were taken away from him after a previous marriage.

In his testimony, Malvo said he was so distraught after the six-hour conversation in July 2002 outlining plans for the spree that he played Russian roulette, crying in a bathtub. He pulled the trigger several times before realizing the next trigger pull would be fatal.

"I just broke down. I couldn't pull the trigger," Malvo said.

He described how he spent the night in a Baltimore cemetery, training a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle on a fast-food restaurant, waiting for pregnant women. He said he saw four, but couldn't bring himself to shoot.

The pair scouted dozens of shooting sites in the region. They looked for scenes that had few surveillance cameras, a limited number of witnesses and easy escape routes. They stopped at many shooting sites, such as shopping malls, parking lots and the area around Howard University in Washington, D.C., but aborted because too many people were nearby.

Malvo said he shot three people during the spree, but that Muhammad was the triggerman in the others. Malvo said he was supposed to shoot five children at a Bowie middle school Oct. 7, 2002 as they got off a bus, but that no buses arrived. Instead, he shot 13-year-old Iran Brown.

In most cases, Malvo acted as the spotter with Muhammad firing from the trunk of their modified Chevrolet Caprice. Using two-way radios, Malvo would tell Muhammad when it was clear to shoot and then watch the victim fall in the Caprice's side mirror. Muhammad would then scramble back into the driver's seat, and the pair would drive off. When Malvo fired, he shot from outside the Caprice.

He also described meeting Muhammad in the Caribbean after Malvo's parents largely abandoned him. Malvo said Muhammad "basically took me under his wing" a few months after they met in May 2000. He said he came to love Muhammad.

Malvo tried to dissuade Muhammad from his plan and suggested they should simply get Muhammad's children and leave the country.

Muhammad trained Malvo in weapons, kept him on a rigorous diet that allowed only one meal each day, and introduced him to the teachings of the Nation of Islam, Malvo said. Muhammad hated America and thought white people were "the devil." He eventually became impressed with his young charge, saying after Malvo calmly shot a man at an Ashland, Va., restaurant, "I've created a ... monster."