Md. Moves First In Alleged Snipers' Cases

As federal and state officials wrangled over who would get first crack at prosecuting the sniper suspects, Maryland authorities Friday night charged each with six counts of first-degree murder and said they would seek the death penalty against John Allen Muhammad.

Arrest warrants were issued for Muhammed and John Lee Malvo, charging them in the six sniper slayings in Montgomery County. The brief warrants list each of the victims' names, and accuse the suspects of "premeditated malice."

State's Attorney Douglas Gansler indicated prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against his 17-year-old alleged accomplice, John Lee Malvo, but do plan to try him as an adult.

"Obviously we have different views in Maryland and Virginia on whether to apply the death penalty to a juvenile," Gansler said. "We don't feel the death penalty is appropriate for juveniles."

The state will become the first to bring murder charges in the string of sniper attacks that left 10 people dead and three wounded in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Gansler announced prosecutors' plans after a meeting with prosecutors from jurisdictions where the killings took place. He said each of the jurisdictions has a vital interest in the case, but Montgomery County was the "community most affected and most impacted by the shootings."

Alabama, meanwhile, will seek the death penalty against both for a related fatality there. Law enforcement officials in Alabama say they plan to seek the death penalty against Muhammad and Malvo in connection with a liquor store killing last month.

Alabama authorities said they were convinced Muhammad was at the scene of a deadly holdup in that state's capital on Sept. 21. A police officer who saw a suspect at the scene "made no hesitation whatsoever" when presented with a picture of Muhammad as part of a photo lineup, Montgomery, Ala., Police Chief John Wilson said.

"We want to send a very strong message to not only this community and this state but the country that this is not the kind of conduct, this is not what we expect of civilized society," Wilson told reporters Friday. "We're going to make an example of somebody."

Wilson said Muhammad, 41, is accused of killing the clerk outside the store as it closed, and that Malvo, 17, is being charged as an accomplice. The two were arrested Thursday in Maryland as suspects in the Washington-area sniper slayings.

The death penalty will be sought against both Muhammad and Malvo under the charges filed Friday, Wilson said.

Testing on a high-powered rifle found in the suspects' car – which had a hole bored in the trunk where a sniper could lie flat and shoot undetected – determined the weapon was used in at least 11 attacks, authorities said.

As the legal process goes forward, more is coming out about the investigation itself - for which lead investigator Charles Moose, the Montgomery County, Md., police chief, received a round of applause at yesterday's news conference announcing that ballistic tests link the gun to the shootings.

CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart reports that authorities confirmed today that the 12-year-old Chevy was no stranger to local traffic cops.

Chief Charles Ramsey says, "At least one photo radar, photo red light camera, captured it running a light down in Fairfax and got the tag. Our officers stopped it one time and ran a hot or cold check on the license tag and it came back clear."

Two other times as well area police ran the tag for violations but got no hits and on Oct. 8 at this Mobil gas station in Baltimore accused sniper John Muhammed set himself up for another traffic check when he asked if he could park and spend the night. Marty Ruby remembers him well.

But Ruby didn't see Muhammed's side kick, John Malvo and neither, apparently, did a Baltimore policeman who checked the car that night and issued a warning to Muhammed, who lied when he said he was "on his way to New Jersey."

And in most cases agents think this is how the pair did it with one man driving and the other concealed in the trunk, firing their semi-automatic Bushmaster rifle through firing holes they punched in the back.

Stewart reports that after the shootings the cluttered old car would just slowly pull away from the scene, agents think, while witnesses concentrated on other vehicles.

Marty Ruby says, "We're looking for white box trucks and white vans and here is he in a blue Caprice! So we don't get suspicious at all."

And neither, it turns out, did the police. The reality is that once someone said "white truck", that's all anyone was looking for, until the very end.

Muhammad and Malvo were arrested early Thursday at a rest stop near Frederick, Md., where they were sleeping in their car - the blue Chevy Caprice spotted by an alert truck driver who recognized the vehicle from a widely publicized police description.

But Ron Lantz doesn't see himself as a hero. Asked about the half-million- dollar reward which he may be eligible to collect, if the suspects are charged and convicted, Lantz says if the money is given to him he'll share it with the families of the victims.

Police Chief Moose says investigators are proceeding carefully.

"This investigation is not done and the work will continue until we can assure that it is complete," says Moose.

U.S. District Court Magistrate Beth P. Gesner has ordered Muhammad to be held at an undisclosed location. His next scheduled court appearance is Tuesday.

Although the motive for the shootings is not known, federal sources said Muhammad and Malvo had been known to speak sympathetically about the hijackers who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Muhammad, a veteran of the Gulf War, changed his name last year from John Allen Williams, years after he converted to Islam.

Authorities say they have not found any evidence that either suspect is linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network or any other terrorist group.

CBS News Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen says the Maryland decision makes the most sense for the exact reasons Montgomery County says it does. Most of the homicides took place there, most of the witnesses likely are there, the Task Force was based there, and apparently prosecutors are convinced that the best evidence comes from there. And if the authorities in Virginia or Alabama aren't happy with the trial result in Maryland, they, too, could bring the men to trial in those jurisdictions.

The bad news for officials in those the jurisdictions that don't get to try these men first is that they won't get the glory and the credit if the men are convicted. The good news is they will save a lot of money by not trying the case now and can always re-try the men anyway if they aren't satisfied with how things go in Montgomery County.

When you hear prosecutors talk about six counts of murder, it means that four other murders have not been accounted for, which tells me that once Maryland has tried these men, Virginia will as well for other homicides. So even if these men receive favorable verdicts in this initial trial, they will be facing at least one or two other murder trials.

Now one of the main questions for defense attorneys will be whether either of these men anytime soon can receive a fair trial in Montgomery County. All of the reasons prosecutors list in support of bringing a case there, defense attorneys will list in arguing that the men cannot get impartial justice from a jury pool made up of potential sniper victims whose kids were in lock-down mode for days, concludes Cohen.