Teenage Sniper Suspect Faces Execution in Us

The teenage half of a pair of marksmen accused in a string of killings in the suburbs of Washington can be tried as an adult, and will be liable for the death penalty, a judge ruled yesterday.

The ruling by a juvenile court in Fairfax, Virginia, came at the end of a two-day hearing which focused on the murder of an FBI analyst and a woman in the car park of a home improvements store, and two other fatal killings.

It follows a string of leaks from the authorities which have sought to portray John Lee Malvo, 17, as the dominant half of a partnership charged with 18 shootings - 13 of them fatal - in a trail of death that began in the southern states, and culminated in Washington last October.

John Allen Muhammad, 42, who introduced himself to strangers as Mr Malvo's stepfather, is to be tried separately next October.

The judge, Charles Maxfield, said he made his decision after reviewing fingerprint and ballistic evidence, and hearing testimony that Mr Malvo had tried to extort $10m (£6.2m) from the authorities for stopping the killings, leaving notes at the scene of killings and calling information hotlines.

The evidence that Mr Malvo had sought to hold the police to ransom was designed to satisfy anti-terrorist laws in Virginia that allow the death penalty for those convicted of trying to spread public intimidation.

During the hearings, forensic experts read out passages from the notes found at the scene of some of the killings.

Those notes played a crucial role in the unfolding drama of the sniper shootings, with police communicating with the killers by using codes culled from the messages during press conferences.

The angry, hectoring tones of those communiques also stoked the fear that gripped the greater Washington area last autumn.

By the time the pair were run to ground, there were signs the attention had gone to their heads. The note left in woodland near the spot in suburban Maryland where the sniper suspects claimed their last victim, bus driver, Conrad Johnson, commanded: "For you Mr police, call me God. Do not release to the press. Can you hear us now! Do not play these childish games with us. You know our demands."

It was read out at yesterday's hearing by a forensic expert.