The man who helped kill 10 people in the Washington, D.C. area in 2002, known as the D.C. sniper, has married.
Lee Boyd Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the killings, was married during a ceremony at Red Onion State Prison in southwest Virginia, the Associated Press reported. “Carmeta Albarus, who has served as an adviser and mentor for Malvo since testifying at his 2003 trial, confirmed the wedding took place earlier this month,” the outlet reported.
“Over the past 17 years, he has grown despite his conditions of confinement,” she told the AP. “He has grown into an adult, and has found love with a wonderful young lady. … It was a beautiful ceremony.”
The bride has not been identified
Back in October 2002, Malvo and John Allen Muhammad terrorized the nation’s capital and neighboring states of Virginia and Maryland during a terrifying killing spree that lasted three weeks and killed 10 people while critically wounding three more. Even before the sniper spree, the pair killed others during a crime spree that began in February 2002 as the two crossed the country. They murdered and burglarized people from Washington state to Louisiana before heading up the Washington, D.C. metro area for the sniper spree.
Muhammad, who was 41 at the time of the killings, was executed in 2009 for his role. Malvo was sentenced to life in prison. Earlier this year, Virginia passed a law that allowed criminals who were under the age of 18 when they committed their crime to seek parole after serving 20 years in prison, the AP reported. This new law would have made Malvo eligible for parole in 2024.
As The Daily Wire previously reported, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in 2017 vacated three of Malvo’s life sentences in Virginia. The decision came years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that mandatory sentences of life without parole for juvenile offenders violated the Eighth Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment. More from The Daily Wire:
The Supreme Court heard Malvo’s case last fall. Attorneys for Malvo, now 35, argued that he should be resentenced in light of the Supreme Court’s recent rulings on juvenile offenders. The Supreme Case on Wednesday dismissed Malvo’s case.
“The one-sentence order, which was expected, comes two days after Virginia’s governor signed a bill making juvenile offenders who were sentenced to life imprisonment eligible for parole after serving 20 years. Both sides told the Supreme Court there was no reason to continue the case,” CNN reported.
Though Malvo received some relief in Virginia, he won’t be released from prison anytime soon. He still has three life sentences in Maryland for the people he killed there during his 2002 crime spree. Following the Supreme Court’s decision, Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) released a statement saying the case was about more than just Malvo.
“He has counts in the state of Maryland so it would be a long time. But it’s not so much about him. It’s about the hundreds of people who are incarcerated right now and were tried as juveniles and we want them to have an opportunity for a second chance,” Northam said in the statement.