SNIPER TRIAL Malvo gets life sentence

Victims' families were angry that the killer didn't get the death penalty.
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) -- Lee Boyd Malvo looked younger than his 18 years as he sat in court during his murder trial and doodled on a legal pad -- and lawyers on both sides agreed his boyishness contributed to the jury's decision to spare his life.
The jury of eight women and four men sentenced Malvo to life in prison without parole Tuesday for his part in the three-week sniper spree that left 10 people dead in and around the nation's capital in October 2002.
Defense lawyers portrayed Malvo as an impressionable boy who fell under the sinister influence of mastermind John Allen Muhammad.
Jury foreman James Wolfcale did not discuss the jury's deliberation process in detail, saying only that the trial was "an extremely difficult journey for everyone. This case was both mentally challenging and emotionally exhausting."
Prosecutor Robert F. Horan Jr. said afterward that Malvo was "very lucky that he looks a lot younger than he is." He said the timing of the deliberations just days before Christmas also affected the jury.
"We used to have a theory when I was a very young prosecutor that whatever you do, don't try one on Christmas week," Horan said.
Effects of youth
Defense attorney Craig Cooley agreed that Malvo's youthful looks probably affected the sentence. He said Malvo was relieved, but "on the other hand he's 18, contemplating living the rest of his natural life in a penitentiary setting." He said the conviction will be appealed.
Malvo, casually dressed in a sweater as he was throughout the trial, sat expressionless, his elbows on the defense table, as he heard the sentence.
The jury took 81/2 hours over two days to decide his fate.
Last month, Muhammad, 42, was found guilty of murder, and a jury in nearby Virginia Beach recommended the death penalty.
Several relatives of the victims said they were disappointed Malvo escaped the death penalty.
Marion Lewis, whose daughter, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, was shot and killed by a sniper bullet while cleaning her minivan at a Maryland gas station, said the jurors should be ashamed.
"I'm very disappointed in the American justice system," Lewis said. "Our society has now been sentenced to the responsibility of seeing to this man's health and welfare for the next 30 or 40 years, and that's unconscionable."
Katrina Hannum, daughter of sniper victim Linda Franklin, shook her head and cried when the sentence was read. She did not speak to reporters.
Conviction
Malvo was convicted last week of two counts of capital murder in the shooting of Franklin, an FBI analyst cut down by a single bullet to the head outside a Home Depot. One count alleged Franklin's slaying was part of a series of murders, the other alleged the killing was intended to terrorize the population. Either count could have brought the death penalty.