Lee Boyd Malvo said he intended to shoot Linda Franklin's husband, William "Ted" Franklin, outside the Falls Church Home Depot on Oct. 14, 2002, according to Baltimore prison guards.
Linda Franklin, an Arlington resident, was killed during sniper attacks that left 10 dead and three more injured in the fall of 2002. Malvo, 18, is charged with capital murder in the shooting.
"He said he didn't shoot her husband because he was loading stuff into the trunk," said Cpl. Wayne Davis, a prison guard who worked at Baltimore's Supermax prison after Malvo was arrested in October 2002.
"He said it was a difficult shot for him because he had to shoot between two posts," said Davis.
"He said he shot the lady," said Capt. Joseph Stracke, a supervisor at the Supermax prison. "He told me because she was lazy — she was standing still."
Malvo, who declined to other law enforcement officials when he was questioned in October about the sniper attacks, did talk with the two prison guards on Oct. 26, before he was transferred to Virginia.
A piece of fish initated the conversation. "He knocked on the glass; he said he wanted Officer Davis' dinner," said Stracke. "I said it wasn't my fish… we were all laughing."
Stracke said Malvo told him that he wouldn't eat when he was on a mission. When Stracke said he asked, "What mission?" Malvo told him, "When you don't eat, it gives more oxygen to the brain…it makes me more alert."
"WE BOTH asked him questions, we were curious," testified Davis, in Fairfax Circuit Court last Thursday, July 24.
Davis told Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh that he never thought he would end up in court testifying about his conversations with Malvo — "not at all, sir, not in a million years," he said.
Malvo's attorneys argue that any statements made to the two guards should not be allowed to be presented during Malvo's trial, scheduled Nov. 10 in Chesapeake, Va.
Last week's hearing was one in a series of hearings to determine the basic rules and elements of the upcoming trial. Malvo could be sentenced to death if convicted.
The guards are agents for law enforcement, said Mark Petrovich, defense attorney. Malvo had already exercised his desire not to talk with police, according to his defense attorneys.
"Not only were his rights not honored, they were trounced over," said Petrovich.
Voluntary statements of any variety are not barred, said Morrogh. He said it's a point of who initiates the conversation, "who gets it going."
JUDGE JANE Marum Roush asked both guards what role they played in continuing conversation with Malvo.
Stracke said he asked Malvo why he shot "the little boy" who was shot at his middle school in Prince George's County. Stracke said Malvo told him, "To get Chief Moose upset… if he got upset he couldn't think straight. It worked because he cried on TV."
"I was curious. I kept listening and to further the conversation, I kept asking questions. I wanted to know why he did it, if he did it," said Davis.
"In Supermax, they're all killers so he wasn't anything astonishing to me," said Stracke.
Roush will give her written ruling by the end of August on whether statements made to the guards will be admissible as evidence during the trial.