Sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo returned Wednesday to Maryland to be tried on charges of killing six people in Montgomery County during the October 2002 shooting spree that terrorized the Washington area.
Malvo was taken out of Red Onion Prison in southwest Virginia, where he is serving a life sentence for the Oct. 14, 2002, shooting of FBI analyst Linda Franklin in Fairfax County, Va., according to Virginia Gov. Mark Warner’s office.
A Maryland State Police plane flew him to Frederick and he was taken to the Montgomery County seat of Rockville for processing before a four-car convoy brought him to county jail in Clarksburg about 1:40 p.m.
Malvo, 20, and John Allen Muhammad, 44, were arrested in Oct. 23, 2002, in Frederick County while they slept in their car at a rest stop.
The spree left 10 people dead, including six in Montgomery County, and three others wounded. The two men also are suspected in earlier shootings in Washington state, Arizona, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana.
Malvo’s attorney in Maryland, Harry Trainor, said in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon that he was on his way to meet his client at the jail. He said he doubted there would be a bond hearing, considering his life sentence in Virginia.
Montgomery prosecutors were the first to announce murder charges against the pair, but they were soon transferred to Virginia for prosecution after then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft determined the likelihood of obtaining a death sentence was greater there. Muhammad was convicted in 2003 of killing Dean Meyers in Manassas, Va., and was sentenced to death.
Maryland’s death penalty law was considered weaker than Virginia’s and Malvo, then 17, would not have been eligible for execution as a minor. However, Malvo was sentenced to life in prison without parole during his 2003 trial in Chesapeake, Va. The U.S. Supreme Court has since struck down the death penalty for juveniles.
Warner and Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich agreed earlier this month to move Malvo and Muhammad to Montgomery because Virginia prosecutors had exhausted their legal cases against the pair. Muhammad has since challenged his transfer.
Even though the two are already sentenced in Virginia, authorities in Maryland have said justice would not be provided for the families of the Maryland victims until the suspects stood trial there.
Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran signed forms a week ago that gave Maryland permission to have Malvo transferred to the state, said Kevin Enright, Curran’s spokesman.
The dead in Montgomery County were James Martin, 55, killed Oct. 2, 2002, in Wheaton; James L. “Sonny” Buchanan, 39, killed Oct. 3 in Rockville; Premkumar A. Walekar, 54, killed Oct. 3 in Aspen Hill; Sarah Ramos, 34, killed Oct. 3 in Silver Spring; Lori Lewis-Rivera, 25, killed Oct. 3 in Kensington; and Conrad Johnson, 35, killed Oct. 22 in Silver Spring.
