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CNN Live At Daybreak
Virginia to Try Snipers
Aired November 08, 2002 - 05:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the sniper case. Virginia will be the first state to try sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo. That's the word from the Justice Department this morning and we're learning there now may be an Atlanta connection to this strange case.
Here's CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Alleged snipers John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo are now in state custody in Virginia. The state is second only to Texas in death penalty executions and also allows the execution of minors.
JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We believe that the first prosecutions should occur in those jurisdictions that provide the best law, the best facts and the best range of available penalties.
ARENA: Mohammed and Malvo will be tried in separate counties. The attorney general would not say why. When asked if it's based on which suspect fired the shot in each case, prosecutors would only say the decision was evidence driven.
MARK HULKOWER, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Typically where you have multiple defendants involved in a case -- here you have two people involved in murders -- typically they're tried together. It's unusual that they would separate them, as they did here.
ARENA: The 17-year-old Malvo will be tried first in Fairfax County. Linda Franklin, an FBI analyst, was shot and killed outside a Home Depot there. The case will be prosecuted by Robert Horan. He's been on the job nearly 36 years and won the death penalty for Mir Amil Kansi, the Pakistani who killed three people outside the CIA in 1993.
ROBERT HORAN, FAIRFAX COUNTY PROSECUTOR: I'm not at liberty to discuss the evidence with anybody. That's for the courtroom and that's where we'll put it on.
ARENA: The other suspect, John Allen Muhammad, will be tried first in Prince William County. Dean Harold Meyers was shot and killed at a Sunoco gas station there. Paul Ebert is the prosecutor in Prince William, which has handled more death penalty cases than any other county in Virginia.
PAUL EBERT, PRINCE WILLIAM PROSECUTOR: The death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst and I think from the evidence that all of you are aware of over the last month or so, these folks qualify.
ARENA: Police say they've linked another fatal shooting to Mohammed and Malvo, this one in Georgia. Investigators say a handgun used to kill a man outside an Atlanta liquor store on September 21 has been linked to the sniper suspects.
(on camera): Police in Montgomery, Alabama found that gun near a shooting there that they believe Muhammad and Malvo committed.
Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And here in Atlanta, word that the sniper suspects may be linked to a fatal shooting stunned friends of the victim, 41-year- old Ethiopian immigrant Million Ruldemarian (ph). He was shot when he went to check on a suspicious car outside of the liquor store where he worked.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm speechless. I don't know what to think. I don't know. I have really have not sleep to know what happens to me. And to hear, there is no words to express what I felt today. I have no idea about what their message, what they are doing it and to me they are just cold-blooded murderers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And yet another alleged link. Listen to this. On the Caribbean island of Antigua, a spokesman for the prime minister says Muhammad was making plans to blow up a bank and rob it. Officials there already have said they believe Muhammad had plotted to kidnap the prime minister for ransom. Muhammad lived in Antigua from March 2000 until May 2001.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 8, 2002 - 05:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the sniper case. Virginia will be the first state to try sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo. That's the word from the Justice Department this morning and we're learning there now may be an Atlanta connection to this strange case.
Here's CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Alleged snipers John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo are now in state custody in Virginia. The state is second only to Texas in death penalty executions and also allows the execution of minors.
JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We believe that the first prosecutions should occur in those jurisdictions that provide the best law, the best facts and the best range of available penalties.
ARENA: Mohammed and Malvo will be tried in separate counties. The attorney general would not say why. When asked if it's based on which suspect fired the shot in each case, prosecutors would only say the decision was evidence driven.
MARK HULKOWER, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Typically where you have multiple defendants involved in a case -- here you have two people involved in murders -- typically they're tried together. It's unusual that they would separate them, as they did here.
ARENA: The 17-year-old Malvo will be tried first in Fairfax County. Linda Franklin, an FBI analyst, was shot and killed outside a Home Depot there. The case will be prosecuted by Robert Horan. He's been on the job nearly 36 years and won the death penalty for Mir Amil Kansi, the Pakistani who killed three people outside the CIA in 1993.
ROBERT HORAN, FAIRFAX COUNTY PROSECUTOR: I'm not at liberty to discuss the evidence with anybody. That's for the courtroom and that's where we'll put it on.
ARENA: The other suspect, John Allen Muhammad, will be tried first in Prince William County. Dean Harold Meyers was shot and killed at a Sunoco gas station there. Paul Ebert is the prosecutor in Prince William, which has handled more death penalty cases than any other county in Virginia.
PAUL EBERT, PRINCE WILLIAM PROSECUTOR: The death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst and I think from the evidence that all of you are aware of over the last month or so, these folks qualify.
ARENA: Police say they've linked another fatal shooting to Mohammed and Malvo, this one in Georgia. Investigators say a handgun used to kill a man outside an Atlanta liquor store on September 21 has been linked to the sniper suspects.
(on camera): Police in Montgomery, Alabama found that gun near a shooting there that they believe Muhammad and Malvo committed.
Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And here in Atlanta, word that the sniper suspects may be linked to a fatal shooting stunned friends of the victim, 41-year- old Ethiopian immigrant Million Ruldemarian (ph). He was shot when he went to check on a suspicious car outside of the liquor store where he worked.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm speechless. I don't know what to think. I don't know. I have really have not sleep to know what happens to me. And to hear, there is no words to express what I felt today. I have no idea about what their message, what they are doing it and to me they are just cold-blooded murderers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And yet another alleged link. Listen to this. On the Caribbean island of Antigua, a spokesman for the prime minister says Muhammad was making plans to blow up a bank and rob it. Officials there already have said they believe Muhammad had plotted to kidnap the prime minister for ransom. Muhammad lived in Antigua from March 2000 until May 2001.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
