Manassas, Va. ? Sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad was sentenced to death Tuesday by a judge who called the Washington-area shootings that left 10 people dead “so vile that they were almost beyond comprehension.”

Muhammad denied any involvement in the October 2002 rampage, echoing a claim of innocence he made in his opening statement to the jury when he briefly served as his own attorney.

“Just like I said at the beginning, I had nothing to do with this, and I’ll say again, I had nothing to do with this,” Muhammad said Tuesday.

He told the judge he planned to appeal, and urged, “Don’t make a fool of the Constitution of the United States of America.”

A jury recommended a death sentence for Muhammad last year, but Circuit Court Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. had the option to reduce it to life in prison without parole. Millette said the evidence of Muhammad’s guilt was “overwhelming.”

“These offenses are so vile that they were almost beyond comprehension,” Millette said.

Muhammad appeared in an orange jail jumpsuit with a slightly graying, unkempt beard, in sharp contrast to his clean-shaven, well-dressed appearance at trial. His teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, is to be sentenced today to life in prison.

Muhammad, 43, was convicted of capital murder on Nov. 17 for the Oct. 9, 2002, murder of Dean Harold Meyers at a gas station near Manassas.

The capital-area killings began on Oct. 2, 2002, when the pair shot a 55-year-old man to death outside a Wheaton, Md., supermarket. The next day, five people were killed in the Washington area — four within a span of about two hours.

Convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad, center, addresses the court along with his attorneys Peter Greenspun, left, and Jonathan Shapiro prior to being sentenced at the Prince William County Circuit Court in Manassas, Va. Muhammad, 43, was sentenced to death Tuesday for the Oct. 9, 2002, murder of Dean Harold Meyers at a gas station near Manassas.

Muhammad and Malvo were captured Oct. 24 at a highway rest stop near Myersville, Md., in a car that had been altered to allow someone to fire a high-powered rifle from inside the trunk.

About 50 family members of sniper victims were in the courtroom.

“Justice has been served today,” said Sonia Wills, mother of sniper victim Conrad Johnson, who would have been 37 this Sunday. “I can go to my son’s grave and wish him a happy birthday.”