Malvo was born in Kingston, Jamaica to Una James, a seamstress, and Leslie Samuel Malvo, a mason. His parents were never married, and their relationship ended while Lee was an infant. His father rarely saw him after that, and his mother was often traveling to look for work. Lee was usually placed in the care of friends and relatives.
Lee appears to have attended high school under the name Lee Malvo in Jamaica before he and his mother emigrated to Antigua in 1998. His father said that this was when he last saw his son.
Una and Lee first met John Allen Muhammad in Antigua around 1999. Although Una and John were not intimately involved, they developed a strong friendship. Later, Una left Antigua for Fort Myers, Florida using false documents. She left Lee with John, planning to have him follow her a few months later. Lee did join his mother for a short time in 2001. In 2002, Lee travelled to Bellingham, Washington, where he lived in a homeless shelter with John and enrolled in high school with John listed as his father. Classmates have said he was good in school, polite, well-dressed, and willing to state his opinions ?- but did not make any friends.
In the summer of 2002, Lee and John were seen for a short time in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After the sniper shootings, Lee was sent to jail in Fairfax County, Virginia. He was charged by the state of Virginia for two capital crimes: the murder of FBI analyst Linda Franklin "in the commission of an act of terrorism" (an addendum to Virginia law that was added after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks), and the murder of more than one person in a three-year period. He was also charged with the unlawful use of a firearm in the murder of Franklin. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. After nearly 14 hours of deliberation, a jury in Chesapeake, Virginia convicted him of both charges on December 18, 2003. Either of these charges could have resulted in a death sentence, but on December 23, 2003, a jury instead sentenced Malvo to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of Franklin.
During his trial, which was moved from Fairfax County to Chesapeake, Malvo at times seemed uninterested in the legal proceedings, drawing pictures of the judge, lawyers and other people in the courtroom. The presiding judge, Jane Marum Roush, joked with courtroom artists about this incident, stating that their art might have to compete with the defendant's for newspaper and TV coverage.
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