Posted on 07/18/2003 8:24:58 PM PDT by blam
Lawyers: Malvo Spoke Proudly of Shootings
Fri Jul 18, 7:39 PM ET Add U.S. National
By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer
FAIRFAX, Va. - Sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo willingly and proudly discussed the sniper shootings with two prison guards the day after his arrest, so his statements should be admissible in court, prosecutors said.
"He was relaxed and calm as he related his past criminal activities," prosecutor Raymond Morrogh wrote in a motion filed Thursday and made public Friday.
"His demeanor with the guards was that of one who was proud of his accomplishments and comfortable with the brutal aftermath of his handiwork," the motion read.
It is not known exactly what Malvo said to guards at the Baltimore Supermax federal prison Oct. 25, the day after his arrest, but the discussions involved the shootings.
Defense lawyers don't want a jury to hear the statements. A motion they filed earlier this month seeks to have the statements suppressed on grounds that Malvo was in government custody and had invoked his right to remain silent.
But Morrogh said Malvo initiated the conversations with guards Wayne Davis and Joseph Stracke. He said the guards had no obligation to inform Malvo of his right to remain silent because they are not law-enforcement officers and because Malvo had not yet been charged with the sniper killings. At the time, he was held on a federal material witness warrant.
The prison guards "did not employ any psychological ploys or exert any pressure on Malvo whatsoever," Morrogh wrote. "At any time Malvo could have walked away from the window in his cell or simply maintained his silence."
Prosecutors say one of the conversations began when Malvo requested a piece of fish from Stracke. When Stracke gave him the fish, Malvo said he "always fasted before his missions," according to Morrogh's brief. That prompted a question from Stracke and a conversation the defense wants to suppress.
A hearing on the issue was scheduled for Thursday.
Malvo, 18, and fellow suspect John Allen Muhammad, 42, have been linked to 20 shootings, including 13 deaths, in Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Washington, D.C. Both could get the death penalty if convicted.
Prosecutors have said the shootings that occurred in metropolitan Washington during a three-week spree in October were part of a scheme to extort $10 million from the government.
Malvo's confession to some of the shootings after his November transfer to Virginia custody already has been ruled admissible by Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush.
Malvo goes on trial Nov. 10 for the killing of FBI analyst Linda Franklin. Muhammad, charged in the slaying of Dean H. Meyers at a gas station, is to go on trial Oct. 14.
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