The invitation to attend the execution came out of the blue about a week and a half ago -- but the call from Virginia correctional officials wasn't exactly a surprise to Marion Lewis.

The Mountain Home man has waited seven years to see the man behind the killing of his 25-year-old daughter, Lori Lewis Rivera, pay the price for his murderous 23-day crime spree, which left 10 people in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia dead and three others seriously injured.

Time has not given Lewis distance from his pain.

"There is no distance in losing a child. Children are not supposed to go before their parents," he said.

The Nov. 10 execution of John Allen Muhammad, 48 - dubbed the "D.C. sniper" in 2002 - is justice for the victims and their families, Lewis said. Muhammad's accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, now 24, was sentenced in 2004 to life in prison without parole.

"My justice demands, right out of the Old Testament, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth ... a life for a life," said Lewis, who at times expressed ambivalence about sounding bloodthirsty or vengeful.

"I'm a Christian. Since this all started, I concluded I am not always a good Christian. It's not very Christian for me to look forward to someone's death," the 57-year-old father of two and grandfather of three said.

Lewis, who worked in construction for 40 years until he was laid off this past winter, hopes family, friends and others can help him cobble together enough money to travel to Virginia for the execution.

He wants to join his son-in-law, Nelson Rivera of Sacramento, Calif., in traveling back East one more time.

He wants to bear witness for his family, including his wife, Jo, their oldest daughter, Charity Randall of Boise, and Lori Ann's daughter, Jocelin Rivera, 10, who lives with her father in Sacramento.

"I believe there is going to be some relief. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't go," said Lewis, who chokes up when he talks about his daughter's death and the pain his family has suffered.

LIVES FOREVER CHANGED

Oct. 3 was the seventh anniversary of Lori Lewis Rivera's death at a gas station in the D.C. suburb of Kensington, Md.

The 1995 Mountain Home High School graduate had moved to the D.C. area for a nanny job after studying at the Northwest Nannies Institute in Oregon.

The young mother, who had met her husband at church, was vacuuming her minivan on the day she fell into Muhammad's crosshairs. The former U.S. Army marksman, who had been living in the Tacoma, Wash., area before the shootings, and Malvo, his young protege, shot random victims from a 1990 Chevrolet Caprice sedan.

Recalling the day he learned his daughter had been shot to death is painful for Lewis. He was working at a custom rock-crushing job on the Idaho-Nevada border, when he got a call at his hotel from his wife.

Lewis was off work for about three weeks after his daughter died. He held a couple of jobs before taking another rock-crushing job, but soon found that they gave him flashbacks.

"When everything is running OK, you're just sitting there watching the machinery. Every day I was reliving that, I couldn't deal with it. ... I just told my boss, 'I have to leave,' " Lewis said.

His daughter is buried at a cemetery a few blocks from his residence in Mountain Home.

"We change the flowers seasonally; we put Christmas decorations up," he said.

WHY SNIPERS KILLED MAY NEVER BE KNOWN

The motivation for Muhammad's killings is still a mystery.

"He's never confessed about this whatsoever that I know of," said Lewis, who, like many victims' family members, still wonders why it happened. "From everything that I have heard and read about that man, he's a borderline egomaniac and he never will never (confess)."

"Malvo has shown remorse," Lewis said. "My feelings about him have lightened up a little bit. But it wouldn't have bothered me if they wanted to execute him."

Muhammad's ex-wife, Mildred, has said publicly that she believes she was meant to be the ultimate target of the shootings. She told National Public Radio that she believes it was part of a larger plot for him to get custody of their three children and compensation from her death.

An attorney for the convicted killer has said he will file a request for clemency with Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine on Thursday.

Kaine said earlier this month that he sees no reason why the execution should be stopped, the Washington Times reported last week.

NEW GRANDCHILD,TRYING FOR A NEW JOB

After 40 years in construction and almost a year out of work, Lewis has decided to get retraining for a new career. He's not sure yet what that new career will be, though computer repair is a possibility.

Lewis' wife, Jo, manages two apartment complexes in Mountain Home. She's wary of the press, which descended en masse in 2002 when it became known that their daughter was one of the D.C. sniper's victims, Lewis said.

Charity Randall, Lori's sister, also declined to talk to a reporter for this article.

In September, the Lewises and Randall celebrated the birth of her daughter, Lauren.

"Eight pounds, 9 ounces, 21 inches," Marion Lewis said happily. "Mother and child are doing fine."

Katy Moeller: 377-6413