Lee Boyd Malvo: Mother tried to break son from grip of influential mentor
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Friday, October 25, 2002, 01:15 a.m. Pacific
By Seattle Times staff
In December 2001, Uma James called the Bellingham Police Department to complain about a man she said had been harassing her teenage son, Lee Boyd Malvo.
The man, John Muhammad, was spending an inordinate amount of time with the boy, then 16, to the point where she believed she needed the police to enforce her rights as a mother. The man and boy were living together in a local mission, and the man was representing himself as Malvo's father or stepfather.
The police responded to the complaint, which they deemed a custodial dispute, the evening of Dec. 19.
"He was overwhelming the kid," said a federal source familiar with the case. "The mother was trying to protect her son. So she called the police."
Earlier reports that Muhammad was the boy's stepfather were wrong. The federal immigration investigation into the incident turned up "no parental right or claim by this guy."
"In fact, it's not even quite clear how he got involved with this family," the source said. "But, clearly, he did."
James had traveled all the way from Florida to Bellingham to retrieve her son from the influence of Muhammad.
In the course of their investigation, according to the federal source, Bellingham police became suspicious about the woman's status in the U.S. They called Border Patrol agents and determined the mother and son were illegally in the country. Both were taken into custody.
And the investigation into allegations of harassment by Muhammad " now thought to have recruited Malvo for a terrifying sniper spree in and around Washington, D.C., that has left 10 people dead " was dropped.
Malvo, now 17, was arrested with Muhammad early Thursday at a truck stop in Maryland. He's being held as a material witness, and federal investigators speculate that Muhammad may have had an almost Svengali-like influence over the boy.
In January 2002, a month after mother and son were arrested in Bellingham, James posted a $1,500 bond and was released from INS custody. Because her son was a juvenile with no criminal history and not considered a flight risk, he was released without bond into his mother's custody.
Jamaican officials said Malvo was born in Kingston on Feb. 18, 1985, to Uma James and Leslie Samuel Malvo. A Lee Malvo attended high school in Jamaica before emigrating to another Caribbean island in 1998 at age 13, according to The Associated Press.
Leslie Malvo, 55, a building contractor in Kingston, Jamaica, woke up yesterday to the news of the arrests in the sniper shootings and his son's alleged involvement.
"He was a nice kid so I don't know how he got mixed up in this," he told The Associated Press at a street corner near his home in the city's central Waltham Park neighborhood.
There were media reports that Lee Malvo and Muhammad may have met in Antigua, where the local Observer Radio reported Muhammad lived around 1999.
When Malvo and his mother left Jamaica, they went to Haiti and possibly Antigua. In June 2001, they were smuggled into this country.
James arrived in the U.S. earlier than her son and claimed asylum with the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Florida. Her son arrived in Florida a short time later. At some point he made his way to Tacoma, and then Bellingham, said sources familiar with the INS case.
When exactly the boy arrived in Tacoma isn't clear, but while there, he lived with Muhammad, neighbors say.
Josh Patrick, 13, who lives in Tacoma's Oakland neighborhood, said he met Malvo at a local basketball court in the summer of last year.
Patrick said the boy he knew did nothing but hang out at the court and wait for other kids to play. Sometimes other kids made fun of him for that. He described Malvo as "a skinny kid, with a little, tiny 'fro."
Other kids described Malvo as a follower, said Patrick. When he'd ask him what he was doing in the neighborhood, Malvo said he was "visiting his father's people."
Malvo is a suspect in a liquor-store shooting in Montgomery, Ala., where police say he left behind a fingerprint on a piece of paper. One person died and a second was injured in the Sept. 21 shooting.
Investigators in the sniper case said a phone call they received led them to Montgomery. Once Malvo was identified as a suspect in that case, investigators learned about John Allen Muhammad.
As part of that FBI investigation into the shootings, documents were taken from Bellingham High School, where Malvo was a junior last year.
Malvo told fellow students he was ahead in his classes because he had been home-schooled.
Yesterday afternoon, cross-country runners at the school recalled how two girls were failing history until they asked for Malvo's help. Always willing to tutor others, Malvo had a reputation for being very smart.
"He was a genius," said one student who sat next to Malvo in history class.
Students also remembered that Malvo's clothing was a bit unusual for a high-schooler. He usually wore slacks, a dress shirt and tie.
Most students knew few things about the new kid other than he liked to play basketball at lunchtime and hung around with the football players and other athletes.
School officials tried to get background information on Malvo in December 2001, when they became aware that he was attending school without proper documentation, according to Bellingham Police Chief Randy Carroll.
Malvo likely arrived in Bellingham in October 2001, when he showed up at the Lighthouse Mission, a Christian shelter, to stay with Muhammad, who had been living there periodically since early August. Both stayed at the shelter off and on until about Jan. 20, 2002.
Over and over, people at the shelter yesterday used the same words to describe the pair: Quiet. Polite. Respectful. Didn't stick out. Malvo sat near the front of the chapel for nightly Christian services.
"We respect everybody's faith here," longtime Chaplain Ron Todd said. "They were very quiet, gentle people."
Malvo always answered "Yes, sir" or "No, sir," said the men who lived and worked there.
Malvo and Muhammad started going to the local YMCA the same month Malvo arrived in town. They worked out several times a week, playing basketball and lifting weights, according to Dave Harding, its executive director.
"They didn't appear to be doing a routine any different than what anyone else does," Harding said.
Rory Reublin, resident manager at the Lighthouse, said he only remembers one time when he could tell Muhammad had a grip on Malvo: Malvo was talking about something to another resident, and "I looked up to see John just give him a look " just a look," Reublin said.
"The kid shut up just like that. ... I don't know if it was fear factor or what."
When the school documents requested by authorities in Bellingham still hadn't arrived in December, a Bellingham police school-resource officer interviewed Malvo.
Before police could contact Muhammad, they were gone.
