The victim at the heart of sniper suspect John Muhammad's murder trial has been pushed into the background by gory crime scene photos, anguished 911 calls and testimony about killings that are not part of this case.
In some jurisdictions, such evidence could be barred, but Virginia law allows evidence about "unadjudicated criminal acts" - crimes with which the defendant may be linked but not necessarily charged with or convicted of - in cases where the death penalty is at stake.
So in addition to photographs of the lifeless, bloody body of Dean Meyers, the 53-year-old Maryland man whose killing prompted murder, terrorism, conspiracy and weapons charges against Muhammad, the jury has also heard from other victims of the sniper spree that gripped the Washington area a year ago.
In the past week, jurors in the Virginia Beach, Virginia, courtroom where the case is being tried heard brief testimony from Iran Brown, the Washington-area student who was critically injured in a shooting attack at his school on October 7th, 2002. The 14-year-old youth said the attack "brought me closer to God."
Jurors were moved to tears when they heard a recording of a distress call placed by the husband of Linda Franklin, 47, an FBI analyst shot to death as she loaded purchases into her car in a store's parking lot. His voice was so high and tense during the call that the 911 operator mistook him for a woman.
On the second day of testimony, Muhammad came face to face with another victim, Paul LaRuffa, a Maryland restaurant owner shot and wounded after he closed up for the night. LaRuffa's sometimes choked testimony drew solicitous comments from Muhammad, who was then acting as his own attorney.