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| Sniper’s ex-wife says his real aim was to kill her |
| By timesdispatch.com |
| Published: 10/29/2009 |
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In October 2002, the shots came from out of nowhere, as seemingly random as they were cold-blooded, leaving 10 dead, three wounded, and millions of people frightened. John Allen Muhammad, now at the Greensville Correctional Center awaiting a scheduled Nov. 10 execution, remains an enigma who might take the motives behind the attacks with him to the grave. In 2003, a jury agreed with prosecutors that the Muhammad-led sniper shootings were terrorist acts that sowed fear from suburban Maryland to the Richmond area in an effort to extort $10 million from the government. Now, a memoir released this month by Muhammad's ex-wife says his crimes were a smokescreen -- that his real aim was to kill her, make the slaying appear random, and then win back their three children he once had abducted. Dr. Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist and the expert hired by the state to conduct a pretrial psychiatric evaluation of Muhammad, agrees with the motive theory outlined in "Scared Silent" by Mildred Muhammad. "My theory about Muhammad was that his intent was to kill his wife to gain custody of his children, and that the other shootings were designed to provide him cover so that he wouldn't be suspected when she became one of the sniper victims," Dietz said in a recent telephone interview. Dietz had access to information about the case that never was made public, but he did not testify. Because Muhammad refused to let Dietz interview him, the judge did not permit Muhammad to introduce evidence from psychiatric experts, either. Papers filed in a federal appeals court this year raise the question of whether Muhammad had any coherent plan. A defense psychiatrist who met Muhammad in 2003 concluded that while he could "show a superficial brightness," she believed he was not competent to stand trial because of his delusional and paranoid statements. Read More. |
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