Teen Convicted of Us Sniper Killings

A Jamaican teenager, Lee Boyd Malvo, was yesterday convicted of murder for his part in the sniper killings of 10 people last year in Washington.

A Virginia jury rejected defence arguments that he had been brainwashed by his elder co-conspirator.

Malvo, 18, showed no emotion as he was found guilty on three counts - murder of at least two people; murder as an act of terrorism; and the use of firearm in committing a crime. He faces the death penalty on the first two charges.

The same jury is to hear arguments today over whether he should be executed. His lawyers said they would bring witnesses from Jamaica and Washington state to testify about his good character before meeting John Muhammad, a veteran of the 1991 Gulf war who was convicted last month of the same killings.

A death sentence is likely to trigger controversy as Malvo was a legal juvenile when the crimes were committed in autumn 2002. Virginia is one of only six states to have executed a juvenile offender in the past 25 years.

The attorney general, John Ashcroft, intervened to ensure that the case was tried in Virginia, although more of the 13 shootings, 10 of them fatal, were committed in Maryland.

Malvo's lawyers had argued his mind had been moulded by Muhammad, who became a self-appointed father figure.