Sniper Suspects to Be Tried in Va.

AP/Yahoo ^ | 11/07/2002 | CURT ANDERSON

[B Knotts]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo will stand trial first in Virginia, ensuring both could get the death penalty if convicted in a string of shootings that terrorized the Washington area last month.

[B Knotts]

Very interesting. BTW, that's the whole article.

[B Knotts]

More info now:

Two law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Muhammad, 41, will stand trial in Prince William County for the Oct. 9 murder of Dean Harold Meyers, who was shot at a Manassas, Va., gas station while filling up his car after work.

Malvo, 17, will stand trial in Fairfax County for the Oct. 14 slaying of Linda Franklin, 47, an FBI (news - web sites) analyst who was shot while putting packages in her car in a Home Depot parking lot in Falls Church, Va., the sources said.

The pair are suspected in 13 shootings, 10 of them fatal, in the shooting spree that began in Maryland and spread to Washington, D.C., and Virginia.

Both suspects face charges of capital murder in the two Virginia cases and, unlike in Maryland or in the federal system, Malvo could be executed if found guilty even though he is a juvenile.

[b4its2late]

Just heard they've linked a shooting in Georgia to these weapons also... These guyss must've been at this for quite some time.

[Catspaw]

BREAKING NEWS: UPDATED 2:25 P.M.
Gun used in Montgomery shooting was used to fatally shoot man in Atlanta, authorities say

By TASGOLA KARLA BRUNER and ERNIE SUGGS
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writers

Related: • Virginia will have first prosecution. • Linked shootings.

Ballistics tests indicate that a gun allegedly used by sniper suspects in Alabama was used to kill an Atlanta man outside a liquor store in September, according to a special agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Jack Killorin, who heads the Atlanta ATF office, said the gun used in the Alabama shooting was flown Wednesday to the ATF's National Laboratory Center in Rockville, Md., where a ballistics test was performed.

The weapon used in the Atlanta and Alabama shootings was a .22-caliber North American Arms revolver, according to GBI spokesman John Bankhead.

Evidence from that test was sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Thursday morning.

The GBI compared the test to the ballistics test from an Sept. 21 shooting being investigated by the Atlanta Police Department. A match was made at 11 a.m. today, said GBI spokesman John Bankhead.

Sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo have also been linked to shootings in Virginia, Maryland, Louisiana and Washington state.

Atlanta police have scheduled a 2:30 p.m. press conference to discuss the link.

WXIA reported the shooting occurred at a store on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and that the victim was a 41-year-old employee.

Officials at a federal courthouse in Maryland, meanwhile, say federal charges against Muhammad have been dismissed.

An official says that means a preliminary hearing scheduled for Friday in federal court has been canceled.

The dismissal could mean that the case will be transferred to a local jurisdiction for prosecution.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

[B Knotts]

A more complete version:

Sniper suspects to stand trial in Virginia first

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo will stand trial first in Virginia, ensuring both could get the death penalty if convicted in a string of shootings that terrorized the Washington area last month.

Two law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Muhammad, 41, will stand trial in Prince William County for the Oct. 9 murder of Dean Harold Meyers, who was shot at a Manassas, Va., gas station while filling up his car after work.

Malvo, 17, will stand trial in Fairfax County for the Oct. 14 slaying of Linda Franklin, 47, an FBI analyst who was shot while putting packages in her car in a Home Depot parking lot in Falls Church, Va., the sources said.

The pair are suspected in 13 shootings, 10 of them fatal, in the shooting spree that began in Maryland and spread to Washington, D.C., and Virginia.

Both suspects face charges of capital murder in the two Virginia cases and, unlike in Maryland or in the federal system, Malvo could be executed if found guilty even though he is a juvenile.

Attorney General John Ashcroft scheduled a 3:30 p.m. news conference to discuss the case.

Since the arrests two weeks ago, prosecutors have sparred over where the suspects should be tried first. Ashcroft said repeatedly that he felt it was important that both face the possibility of the death penalty.

With 86 executions since 1976, Virginia ranks second only to Texas, while Maryland has suspended capital punishment and Washington, D.C., does not allow executions.

In addition to capital murder, Muhammad and Malvo are charged under two new Virginia death penalty laws: an anti-terrorism law enacted after Sept. 11, 2001, and another allowing capital punishment for killing more than one person within three years. Under the terrorism law, prosecutors would not have to prove which defendant pulled the trigger in order for both to get the death penalty if convicted.

Muhammad and Malvo also have been charged with murder in the Sept. 21 killing of liquor store clerk Claudine Parker, 52, in Montgomery, Ala., and the Sept. 23 slaying of Hong Im Ballenger, 45, outside her beauty supply store in Baton Rouge, La.

And they are suspects in murders in Tacoma, Wash., and Tucson, Ariz., as well as a pair of robberies in the Maryland suburbs around Washington in which two men were shot and wounded.

All together, investigators believe the pair are responsible for 17 shootings that killed 12 and wounded five, and authorities have not ruled out more crimes.

Montgomery County, Md., prosecutor Doug Gansler had filed the first murder charges in the case, angering federal officials and souring the cooperative relationship that marked the investigation of the shootings.

Gansler argued that Maryland deserved the trials because six people were killed there -- the most victims in a single state -- but federal officials said Maryland's death penalty laws were too weak and its record of carrying out capital punishment was ineffective.

Federal charges against Muhammad allow the death penalty but only if prosecutors can tie the shootings into an extortion plot under the Hobbs Act. Police say they recovered a letter outside the scene of a shooting in Ashland, Va., demanding $10 million for the murders to stop.

Eventually, each of the local jurisdictions will have an opportunity to try the two on their charges.

Muhammad and Malvo have been in federal custody since their arrest Oct. 24 at a rest stop along Interstate 70 in Maryland. In their car, police say they found a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle that has been linked to most of the Washington-area slayings and to the murders in Louisiana and Alabama.

[3AngelaD]

Good. As a Texan living in Virginia, I say, crank up Ol' Sparky (I know, I know, Ol' Sparky belongs to Florida, but we could borrow it, for pete's sake, the Floridians shouldn't have all the fun.) The trial will be a media circus nightmare, but so be it, because Virginia knows how to deal with these kinds of people.

[AmericanInTokyo]

"Wherefore it was written, the Lord taketh from Maryland, and giveth to Virginia". ;-)

They must be heading for the bars and pharmacies and therapist couches after work over in Peoples Republic of Maryland about all this. They don't want to see that "poor disadvantaged immigrant child" given the 'Virginia Hot Needle'.

First they get a GOP for Governor, and the next day they have their case taken away from them and passed on down below the Mason-Dixon line to a hangin' judge.

And Virginia puts another guilty islamist terrorist (the CIA shooter) from Pakistan out of his misery just one week from today.

[templar]

.. both could get the death penalty if convicted ...

IF Convicted?

[AmericanInTokyo]

If they were acquitted over a mere "technicality" in Virginia, just how many steps do you think these two would make it from the courthouse in Virginia?

[Thisiswhoweare]

I also live in VA, and I hope that they get the DP and, they be sentenced to be shot unaware by sniper executioners!

Seems that would be justice more than the "whimpy injection" with no pain and no fear. I want them to fear death the way they inflicted that fear on all of us during their reign of terror episode.

Sorry, if that makes me sound cruel. Just stating my thoughts on this matter.

[ArrogantBustard]

Mason's and Dixon's Line forms the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland. FWIW. By that definition, Maryland is a Southern State. Not that they act like it. Virginia is a pro-choice state. Convicted, condemned murderers (like Mir Amal Kansi, the muslim terrorist CIA shooter) get to choose between the needle and the chair.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Yes, but of course. My definition is not primarily geographic, which you are correct on, but rather social, political and otherwise. I often do not include Maryland in either 'the south' or 'below the Mason Dixon', in those terms. Thanks.

[witnesstothefall]

Splendid. Further, this seemingly proves the case for the efficacy of capital punishment. The liberal Maryland justice system was simply too liberal to deal adequately with society's monsters, while Virginia's was. The fact that Maryland has not protested this deal is an admission of the same.

[woofer]

Convicted, condemned murderers (like Mir Amal Kansi, the muslim terrorist CIA shooter) get to choose between the needle and the chair.

Sounds fair enough. However, I'd feel better about the choosing thing if they would add another choice:

Running a gauntlet of two hundred men with baseball bats.

[3AngelaD]

This is exactly why I am advocating that we borrow Ol' Sparky, to conduct something more serious than a painless trip-to-the-dentist execution.

[Fred Mertz]

See #4 for a new Sep 21 liquor store shooting linked to the sniper(s) in Atlanta, Georgia.

#5 I believe incorrectly lists the Montgomery, Alabama shooting as Sep 21; should be Sep 20.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanksf for finding this and posting it!

Is there any data about where John Muhammad lived while he belonged to the Guard program in Portland, Oregon.

[ArrogantBustard]

Culturally, yes. The urban parts of Maryland have more in common with Philadelphia than with anything in "the South". The rural areas, OTOH, are rather more like Virginia than like Pennsylvania. Naturally, the urban areas voted primarily for "Kookie Katie" Townsend, and the rural areas primarily for Bob Ehrlich in the recent gubernatorial election. Ehrlich got a big boost from suburban Baltimore County, and is the governor-elect.

[Grampa Dave]

This good news is from this article you posted:

With 86 executions since 1976, Virginia ranks second only to Texas, while Maryland has suspended capital punishment and Washington, D.C., does not allow executions.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks! This is the type of Pro Choice, most of us are in favor of:Virginia is a pro-choice state. Convicted, condemned murderers (like Mir Amal Kansi, the muslim terrorist CIA shooter) get to choose between the needle and the chair.