Sniper Survivor Braces to Face Suspect

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – When Kellie Adams (search) was subpoenaed to testify at the trial of sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad (search), she never imagined she could wind up answering questions from the man accused of shooting her last fall.

Adams, who was critically wounded in the shooting outside a liquor store where she worked, said she still planned to go to Virginia Beach, Va., to testify later this week, though she's apprehensive about Muhammad cross-examining her as he represents himself in his capital murder trial.

"I can't imagine what went through the judge's head when he allowed him to be his own lawyer," Adams said Monday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "There's nothing worse than having to look at the man who tried to kill you."

Circuit Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. granted Muhammad's last-minute request Monday to serve as his own lawyer.

Muhammad, 42, is being tried in the slaying of Dean Harold Meyers (search), 53, who was gunned down outside a northern Virginia gas station last October. He was the seventh victim in a three-week shooting spree that left 10 people dead in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.

In his opening statement Monday, Muhammad denied involvement in the shootings.

Besides those shootings, Muhammad and 18-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo are suspected or charged in shootings in four other states, including outside the Montgomery liquor store.

Adams and store manager Claudine Parker were shot as they were locking up the store on Sept. 21, 2002. Parker was killed and Adams had her jaw shattered by a bullet, resulting in five surgeries.

Authorities have said the Montgomery shooting was linked to at least two of the shootings in Maryland by ballistics tests.

Adams said prosecutors have assured her that security will be heightened for the trial. Though she isn't looking forward to confronting Muhammad, she wants to do everything she can to aid his prosecution.

"He's claiming that he's innocent, that he didn't do it." Adams said. "So for him to get up there and say `I'm not guilty,' it makes me more determined to get up there and show what he did."