Sniper suspect's son, ex-wife back death penalty
( 2002-10-31 09:32 ) (7 )

The first wife of John Allen Muhammad, one of two suspects in the deaths of 10 people in the Washington sniper spree, said on Tuesday he should be put to death if found guilty.

"If he sat in a car and killed innocent people, if they find him guilty for that, then yes," Carol Williams said on CNN's "Larry King Live" when asked if she would support the death penalty for Muhammad if he was convicted.

Muhammad's son Lindbergh Williams, 20, also backed the death penalty.

"Even though he is my father, in my eyes, you reap what you sow. If you were man to enough to do it, you are man enough to pay the consequences," he said, shadowed from the camera to hide his face.

Muhammad, 41, and his 17-year-old traveling companion John Lee Malvo face six murder charges apiece in Maryland. Muhammad faces additional murder charges in neighboring Virginia as well as federal charges.

The pair were arrested last week in connection with the sniper attacks which began on Oct. 2 and terrified the Washington area for three weeks.

Carol Williams, who married Muhammad in 1981 and separated from him in 1985, said he had introduced Malvo as his son last summer, and that Malvo called Muhammad "father."

She said she received a telephone death threat on Oct. 23, the day before Muhammad's arrest in Frederick, Maryland. While she did not recognize the voice, Williams said she worried Muhammad had planned to kill her.

"Right now I'm not sleeping. I can't sleep because I feel that if it's actually him and they hadn't caught him, I would have been in the number. I would have been one of the ones that he'd have killed," she said.

Lindbergh Williams told CNN it was likely that Malvo was under Muhammad's control.

"He's a very good manipulator. He can talk very well. If you let him inside of your head, he will take control over your head," Williams said.

He said he believed his father's service in the military during the Gulf War (news - web sites), and two divorces which stripped him of custody of his children, had played a part in disturbing his mental balance.

"I think over the years of so much stuff, he just snapped," the son said. "The loss of his children, the military, that's stressful enough on its own, being in the war. ... He just snapped."

But at least one family member maintained Muhammad's innocence in the case. His nephew, Edward Williams Jr., 19, said he looked up to Muhammad, who inspired him to go into the military.

"I don't think he went crazy, and I don't really think he did it," the nephew said. "That's how much I look up to my uncle. I don't think that he would do that kind of stuff to anybody, to anyone."