Lee Boyd Malvo (born February 18, 1985), along with John Allen Muhammad, was arrested in connection with the October 24, 2002 Beltway sniper attacks.
Malvo was born in Kingston, Jamaica to Una James, a seamstress, and Leslie Samuel Malvo, a mason. The parents were never married, and their relationship ended while he was an infant. The father rarely saw him after that, and his mother was often travelling to look for work. He was usually placed in the care of friends and relatives.
He appears to have attended high school under the name Lee Malvo in Jamaica before he and his mother emigrated to Antigua with his mother in 1998 at age of 13, hoping to find a better life. This was the year Leslie Malvo said he last saw his son.
James and Malvo first met Muhammad there around 1999. Although James and Muhammed were not intimately involved, Muhammed and the boy developed a strong relationship. Later, James left Antigua for Fort Myers, Florida using false documents and left her son with Muhammed, planning to have her son follow her a few months later. He did join her mother for a short time in 2001, but in 2002 he travelled to Bellingham, Washington, where he lived in a homeless shelter with Muhammed and enrolled in high school there with Muhammed listed as his father. Classmates have said he was good in school, polite, well-dressed, and willing to state his opinions —- but did not make any friends.
In the summer of 2002, they were seen for a short time in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After the sniper shootings, he was sent to jail in Fairfax County. He was charged for two capital crimes: the murder of FBI analyst Linda Franklin "in the commission of an act of terrorism" (an addendum to U.S. law that was a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001), and the murder of more than one person in a three-year period. Either of these charges could result in a death sentence if he is convicted. He is also charged with the unlawful use of a firearm in the murder of Franklin. Malvo has pleaded innocent to all charges.
During his trial, which was moved from Fairfax County to Chesapeake, Virginia, Malvo at times seemed uninterested in the legal proceedings, drawing pictures of the judge, lawyers and other people in the courtroom. The presiding judge, Jane Marum Roush, joked with courtroom artists about this incident, stating that their art might have to compete with the defendant's for newspaper and TV coverage.
Bibliography
- Bio: Lee Boyd Malvo, Fox News
- Profile: Lee Boyd Malvo, BBC News
- Doodling sniper suspect keeps pace with artists, The Toronto Star