Malvo Describes Two-Step Plan

They headed to the Washington area late that summer, where Malvo conducted "surveillance" on the townhouse where Muhammad's wife, Mildred, lived with their three children. Later that summer, they bought a 1990 Chevrolet Caprice in New Jersey, tinted its windows and modified the rear to facilitate shooting from a hole in the trunk while lying face down inside it, Malvo testified.

The murderous rampage began in Silver Spring the evening of Oct. 2, as James Martin, a federal employee, walked across a supermarket parking lot. Muhammad believed Montgomery County was the ideal place to unleash the terror, Malvo testified, because it was affluent and predominantly white.

This was the well-rehearsed routine they used in most of the slayings, according to Malvo's testimony: Muhammad would pull a lever that dropped his seat back, climb into the back seat and then the trunk. Sitting in the passenger seat, Malvo would act as the spotter, clearing Muhammad to pull the trigger when there were few or no witnesses nearby.

"I told Mr. Muhammad, 'You got a go,' " he said again and again, describing the shootings. "He took the shot."

In addition to the 13 known sniper shootings, Malvo described a number of planned shootings that were called off because there were too many potential witnesses.

In one instance, Malvo said, he assumed a position at a cemetery in Baltimore at Muhammad's urging, looking for pregnant women to kill. Muhammad selected that target, Malvo said, "for the sheer terror of it.''

Muhammad also planned to kill a police officer and later detonate a bomb during the well-attended funeral, Malvo said.

Unable to meet his goal of six slayings a day, Muhammad grew restless toward the end of October, Malvo testified.

Muhammad, 45, said that he expects his cross-examination of Malvo, which is expected to resume today, will be lengthy.

He began by asking the witness to elaborate on his earlier testimony that Muhammad was a man of his word. What then could be concluded, Muhammad asked, from the fact that Muhammad had told the jury he would prove that he and Malvo were not involved in the shootings?

"I said your word is bond," Malvo shot back in a firm voice. "I never said you were telling the truth."

After noting that Malvo had been sentenced to life in Virginia for a shooting that was not among the three in which he admitted to being the gunman, Muhammad said, "So, in essence, you were an innocent person in jail."