Feds File Charges in Sniper Case

Oct. 29, 2002 -- Charges continued to pile up against sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad today as the federal government filed a 20-count criminal complaint that could make him eligible for the federal death penalty.

The five-page complaint alleges Muhammad, 41, committed federal offenses, including using a firearm during a killing and killing during an extortion scheme that interferes with interstate commerce, charges that could bring the death penalty.

The extortion allegation could stem from a note found at the scene of a shooting in Ashland, Va., that demanded $10 million and included threats to kill again if the demand was not met. According to the federal affidavit, several shootings took place near major highway exit ramps and commercial franchises, thus affecting interstate commerce.

Muhammad was also charged with discharging a firearm into a school zone, among other criminal counts.

The younger sniper suspect, John Lee Malvo, 17, was not named because he is a minor. A juvenile can be charged with a federal capital offense but cannot be executed. Officials are barred from discussing federal charges against a juvenile.

The two are suspected of carrying out a series of sniper attacks in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., that left 10 people dead and three wounded in a three-week span.

At a Washington news conference, Attorney General John Ashcroft suggested he supported the use of the death penalty in the sniper case.

"I believe the ultimate sanction ought to be available here," he said, calling the sniper slayings "an atrocity."

Defense Attorney Pleads for Fairness

The criminal complaint was filed against Muhammad in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Md., in connection with seven shooting deaths — six in Montgomery County, Md., and one in Washington, D.C. — and three injuries attributed to the D.C.-area serial sniper. Three shooting deaths in Virginia were not mentioned in the complaint.

During his initial court appearance this afternoon, Muhammad stood before a federal magistrate in a dark red prison jumpsuit and answered "yes, sir" when asked if he understood the charges against him.

Outside the courthouse, Muhammad's public defender pleaded for fairness for his client. "This is a situation with so much emotion and so much passion, that it breeds the chance for errors," attorney Jim Wyda said.

Muhammad's next federal court appearance was scheduled for Nov. 5.

Ashcroft will decide which prosecutors will be the first to try the suspects. The filing of federal charges, Ashcroft said, gives the government "the time and opportunity to assess … where we should best proceed in cooperation with other authorities."

Muhammad and Malvo, already facing multiple murder charges in Maryland, were indicted Monday on capital murder and other charges in the sniper shootings in three Virginia counties. Prosecutors in Montgomery, Ala., also have filed capital murder charges against the pair for a shooting outside a liquor store last month.

Tacoma Police Link Suspects to Murder

The affidavit provides a glimpse into the evidence collected in the federal government's case against Muhammad, including a single brown cotton glove found "protruding from a hole in the trunk" of the suspect's car that allegedly appears similar to a single brown cotton glove found at the scene of the Oct. 22 shooting in Silver Spring, Md., that killed bus driver Conrad E. Johnson.

When law enforcement officers searched Muhammad's blue Chevrolet Caprice, they also found two-way radios, a Sony laptop, and a global positioning system, the filing reads. The affidavit also claims that handwriting on the Ashland letter matches the writing on a tarot card found after the shooting of a 13-year-old boy in Bowie, Md.

Indicating the sniper investigation's coast-to-coast scope, the affidavit also cites testimony of a Tacoma, Wash., resident who says Muhammad traveled with an unidentified juvenile whom Muhammad called "Sniper." The pair toted an AR-15-type firearm, which can shoot .223 ammunition, the witness said, and claimed the two were attempting to "zero" the firearm, or calibrate it for better accuracy.

In another development, authorities in Tacoma, Wash., have linked the men to the shooting death of a 21-year-old woman there whose aunt once worked for Muhammad's auto repair business.

Keenya Cook, 21, was shot in the face when she opened the door of her aunt's Tacoma home on Feb. 16. On Monday, Tacoma Police Chief David Brame named Muhammad and Malvo as suspects.

The pair also were linked to a shooting last spring at a Tacoma synagogue in which no one was injured, Tacoma police and representatives of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said at a news conference.

A Tacoma-area man contacted authorities last week and said he let Muhammad and Malvo borrow weapons, including a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun, Brame said.

Investigators recovered three handguns and two rifles from the man, including two allegedly used in the crimes, Tacoma police spokesman Jim Mattheis said. Ballistics tests confirmed that both weapons were used in separate shootings, he said.

Charges in D.C.-Area Shootings

On Monday, prosecutors from Spotsylvania, Hanover and Prince William counties in Virginia joined Maryland's Montgomery County in filing charges against Muhammad and Malvo in the sniper shootings that terrorized the area for three weeks before the two suspects were captured sleeping in their car at a highway rest area.

Last Friday, Montgomery County became the first of the seven jurisdictions affected by the serial sniper attacks to charge the two men, filing six counts of murder against the pair.

In Spotsylvania County, Muhammad was charged with capital murder in the fatal shooting of Kenneth Bridges at a gas station near Fredericksburg on Oct. 11, and with attempted capital murder and aggravated malicious wounding in the shooting of a woman in a crafts store parking lot on Oct. 4.

Spotsylvania County Sheriff Ronald Knight said similar charges were brought against Malvo in juvenile court, and a petition would be filed later this week to try him as an adult.

Hanover County Commonwealth's Attorney Kirby Porter announced that Muhammad and Malvo were charged in his jurisdiction with attempted capital murder in the shooting of a man in the parking lot of a Ponderosa restaurant in Ashland, and both were also indicted under the state's terrorist enterprise statute.

And in Prince William County, prosecutors announced both men were being charged for capital murder for the Oct. 9 slaying of Dean Harold Meyers as well as conspiracy to commit murder and illegal use of a firearm.

Though Malvo is only 17, prosecutors in all three Virginia counties said they want to try him as an adult. Maryland also hopes to try Malvo as an adult and seek the death penalty against him and Muhammad.

However, even if a jury did decide that Malvo should be put to death, Maryland does not allow juveniles to be executed. Virginia, however, does.

ABCNEWS' Pierre Thomas in Washington, D.C., Neal Karlinksy and Mike Gudgell in Seattle and ABCNEWS affiliate KOMO in Seattle contributed to this report.