Ex-Wife of Sniper Says Muhammad Deserves Death

Dec. 12, 2003 -- Mildred Muhammad says her ex-husband' killing spree was meant to be a distraction, so that her eventual murder would be linked to a mysterious sniper, and not to him.

Mildred Muhammad says she has been running scared from John Allen Muhammad since they separated three years ago. She says her ex-husband threatened to kill her after they split, saying that she wouldn't raise their children on her own.

She says she believes the shootings her ex-husband carried out were part of a plan to get her out of the picture.

"Unfortunately, other people were brought into this plan, to where there would be multiple killings. I would be included in that, because no one would have looked into why I was killed," Mildred Muhhamed told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "So he would have gone off with the children and then that would have been it."

Mildred Muhammad said she and the now convicted sniper had been a happy couple until he returned from the first Gulf War a changed man, and that he believes he is a prisoner of war now that he is in jail.

"I feel that right now he's operating as a prisoner of war. So he gives name, rank, and serial number. I wasn't surprised that he did not give a psych evaluation, because he doesn't want anyone to know how he thinks. So I'm sure he's creating diversions in jail to make an escape plan," she said.

She says her former husband was a happy man with a strong sense of humor before Operation Desert Storm. She said their relationship began to fall apart when he returned home.

"He was distant. He no longer wanted me to know his feelings," she said.

A jury decided last month — after John Allen Muhammad was found guilty of the sniper attacks that terrorized the Washington, D.C.-area for three weeks last fall — that he should be executed.

His ex-wife of 10 years says she believes, based on what the jury said, that her ex-husband does in fact deserve the death penalty in the case.

Muhammad says she is able to cope with the situation because, in her mind, the man she was once married to is a completely different person.Attorneys for Lee Boyd Malvo, who was arrested with John Allen Muhammad on Oct. 24, 2002 in the sniper shootings, claim Malvo, 19, is innocent by reason of insanity and was brainwashed by Muhammad.

Mildred Muhammad says she believes her former husband is capable of brainwashing, especially when it comes to younger people.

"He gives of himself enough to where you are captivated and you want to do all that you can to impress him and to do what he wants you to do," she said.

The convicted sniper's ex-wife says their children, which range in age from 10 to 13 years old, have had a very difficult time since the arrest.

"In the beginning they were going through a hard time because they didn't know if it was OK to love him in spite of all of this," she said.

She says her children have sent letters to the jail where John Allen Muhammad is being held. She says they ask him for answers to various questions about the sniper attacks, but they have not received a reply.

Mildred Muhammad says her biggest worry these days is that her ex-husband will find a way out of jail and back to her.

"He's planning. He's not sitting idle," she said.