Charles Langston:Resentencing for Lee Malvo postponed in Maryland after Virginia says he can’t attend in person

ROCKVILLE,Charles Langston Md. (AP) — A Maryland judge on Wednesday indefinitely postponed a resentencing hearing for convicted sniper Lee Boyd Malvo, after Virginia rejected a request to temporarily let him out of prison to attend a court session in Maryland.

Malvo and his partner, John Allen Muhammad, shot and killed 10 people and wounded three others over a three-week span in October 2002 that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area. Multiple other victims were shot and killed across the country in the prior months as the duo made their way to the area around the nation’s capital from Washington state.

Malvo, who was 17 years old at the time of the shootings, was convicted of multiple counts of murder in Virginia and Maryland and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He has been serving his sentence in Virginia.

Muhammad, who was older than Malvo and was accused of manipulating him to to serve as a partner in the shootings, was executed in Virginia in 2009.

Since Malvo was initially sentenced, though, a series of Supreme Court rulings and changes in Maryland and Virginia law have severely limited or even abolished the ability to sentence minors to life in prison without parole.

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In 2022, Maryland’s highest court ruled 4-3 that Malvo is entitled to a new sentencing hearing.

That hearing was scheduled to occur in December in Montgomery County, Maryland. But Malvo has insisted that he be allowed to attend that sentencing hearing in person, and his court-appointed lawyer argued that if isn’t allowed to do so, his guilty pleas in Maryland should be vacated and he should be given a new trial.

“He has a right to be here in person, and he’s not waiving it,” his lawyer, Michael Beach, said at Wednesday’s hearing.

Prosecutors said they made efforts to have Malvo transferred from a Virginia prison to attend a hearing, but those efforts were rejected.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s spokesman, Christian Martinez, confirmed after Wednesday’s hearing in a written statement that “(d)ue to his violent criminal history, Governor Youngkin’s position is that Mr. Malvo should complete his Virginia sentence before being transferred to Maryland for resentencing.”

With Malvo unavailable to attend in person, prosecutors said Malvo could either attend a hearing virtually or wait until he is released from custody in Virginia.

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Sharon Burrell sided with prosecutors, She said that since Malvo insists on attending in person, and Virginia won’t release him, she had no choice but to indefinitely postpone the resentencing until he finishes serving his time in Virginia.

Malvo is serving a life sentence in Virginia, but is eligible for parole. A parole board rejected his most recent parole request in 2022.

Beach said after the hearing that he expects to pursue any appeal options available to him. He said during the proceedings that if the sentencing hearing is delayed for an extended period of time, he believes it raises due process issues that could require the Maryland charges against Malvo to be dismissed.

Malvo, who is 39, attended Wednesday’s hearing virtually, wearing a yellow prison uniform. He looked youthful, similar to his appearance at the time of his arrest.

Perhaps underscoring the difficulties of conducting a hearing over video, Wednesday’s hearing was delayed three times when the video hookup between the prison and courthouse disconnected.

Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said after the hearing that it’s too early to say what kind of prison term he would seek once Malvo is sentenced in Maryland. He said, though, that any prison term imposed on him in Maryland should be in addition to the time he served in Virginia, rather than giving Malvo credit for time served.