VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - John Allen Muhammad entered innocent pleas yesterday as the death-penalty trial of the sniper suspect got under way a year after a series of deadly shootings terrified the Washington area.
Muhammad, 42, pleaded innocent to capital murder and firearms charges. The case, which is expected to last up to six weeks, was moved some 200 miles out of metropolitan Washington to this southeastern Virginia city after defense lawyers argued that every northern Virginia resident could be considered a victim because the shootings made them afraid.
Some legal experts have said it will be difficult to select impartial jurors from a community where people may still have felt vulnerable as the attacks mounted. Intense media coverage of the case also will make it difficult to find unbiased jurors.
Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, 18, are charged with 13 shootings, including 10 deaths, over a three-week span last October that left many Washington area residents ducking for cover as they filled gas tanks and ran errands.
Malvo goes on trial Nov. 10 in neighboring Chesapeake for a fatal shooting last October outside a Home Depot in Fairfax County. His lawyers intend to pursue an insanity defense, saying Muhammad had so indoctrinated his young companion that Malvo could no longer tell right from wrong.
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