Baton Rouge cousin to testify in sniper suspect’s trial

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – One of sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad’s cousins from Baton Rouge has been subpoenaed and is scheduled to testify in his Virginia trial.
Charlene Anderson was planning to board a plane headed for Virginia Wednesday and said she expected to take the stand on Thursday.
‘‘I should say what I know because of the innocent people he supposedly killed,’’ Anderson said. ‘‘You just don’t kill people like that. But if he gets the death penalty, I can’t say I won’t cry.’’
Anderson has said that Muhammad showed up at her Baton Rouge home last summer with a young man, Lee Boyd Malvo, in tow and a rifle mounted with a scope for long-distance shooting.
During the week Muhammad was in Baton Rouge, where he grew up and graduated from Scotlandville High School, he left the rifle at Anderson’s house, in a locked case, she has said.
Three months later, Muhammad and Malvo were arrested in connection with a string of shootings in the Washington, D.C., area, accused of using a high-powered rifle to kill 10 people and wounding three others.
Anderson, 42, a sergeant with the Southern University Police Department, said said she has been in frequent contact with the Prince William Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, and said she was not surprised when she received a subpoena in the mail lastweek.
However, because Muhammad is acting as his own defense lawyer – a move Anderson called ‘‘suicidal and crazy’’ – he will have the chance to cross-examine his cousin.
‘‘I’m kind of curious about how he will react to me,’’ Anderson said. ‘‘He was always the joking type with me. I wonder if he’ll be serious now. I imagine he will be.’’
Muhammad’s trial began Monday in the shooting death of a Manassas, Va., man. Muhammad also has been indicted in East Baton Rouge Parish for the Sept. 23, 2002, killing of Hong Im Ballenger, a 45-year-old mother of three.
Ballenger’s family members, including her husband, left for Virginia on Tuesday.
Muhammad is a suspect in several other shootings across the country, including a non-fatal shooting in Baton Rouge last year of grocery store owner Wright Williams Jr.
Anderson said Tuesday that she is certain her cousin used the weapon that was brought to her home in the shooting spree. Nothing that comes out of the trial can change her mind, she said.