Malvo's Dad: 'Lee Was My Pride'

Sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo's trial for the Oct. 14, 2002 shooting of Linda Franklin at a Home Depot in Falls Church was continuing Tuesday.

Jurors in a separate trial in Virginia Beach Monday recommended the death penalty for convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad.

The defense plans to call witnesses to address Malvo's relationship with Muhammad, reports Mitchell Miller of CBS radio affiliate WTOP-AM, trying to show Muhammad took control of a boy in need of a father figure.

"I don't think we'll anticipate any change in our plans to present the evidence in Lee's case independent of Mr. Muhammad's verdict," said attorney Craig Cooley.

The Muhammad verdict should delight Malvo's attorneys, says CBSNews.com Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen. "Their whole defense is based on the notion that he's the bad guy who essentially coerced Malvo into the shootings."

Prosecutors also, however, will welcome the sentencing recommendation, because they want to link the two together, Cohen added.

"Indoctrination of Lee by Mr. Muhammad was the underlying cause" of Malvo's problems, said Cooley.

Malvo's lawyers will present extensive mental health testimony to try to convince the jury he was an impressionable boy molded into a murderer by Muhammad, reports CBS News Correspondent Barry Bagnato.

Malvo's biological father, Leslie Malvo, broke down on the witness stand Monday, saying he lost touch with his son eight years ago in Jamaica. He remembered his boy as innocent and well-behaved.

"Lee was my pride," Leslie Malvo said. "I love him very much."

An interpreter clarified his answers to attorneys' questions because the senior Malvo, a mason who lives in Kingston, Jamaica, has a heavy accent.

Cooley said more Jamaican witnesses will be called to discuss the sniper suspect's troubled childhood.

In taped confessions played for jurors, Malvo boasts that he was the triggerman in all the sniper shootings. His defense has admitted he shot Franklin, but said that Muhammad, who often introduced Malvo as his son, molded the teen into a killer.

Malvo was not told of Muhammad's death sentence during his trial session, but Cooley said he planned to let Malvo know Monday night.

Jurors heard the rest of a recorded police interview Monday, which included Malvo's predictions that he and Muhammad would both be executed for the shootings.

"I think they're gonna kill me," Malvo said. He later added: "Between Alabama, Louisiana and Virginia, Alabama, good as gold."

Semone Powell, a second cousin of Malvo, testified that his mother beat him, even though he was an obedient child. Una James would get upset if she asked Malvo to bring her a basket and she thought the boy moved too slowly, Powell said.

"She would hit him, hit him randomly all over his body with her hand," Powell said. James also threw shoes at Malvo, pulled his hair and yelled at him, using "words that were not so nice," she said.