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Prosecutors have assigned a team of veteran detectives from Spotsylvania, Prince William and Fairfax counties to help bring the two sniper suspects to trial.
The investigators, about a dozen in all, plan to move Monday morning into office space leased by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Fairfax County.
The group will interview witnesses, review evidence, follow up leads, study surveillance videos and help prosecutors prepare for the capital murder trials of John Allen Muhammad and alleged accomplice John Lee Malvo.
Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert will be the first to try Muhammad, a 41-year-old former Army soldier accused of gunning down 13 people from Maryland to Ashland in a terrifying three-week shooting spree.
Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. will prosecute Malvo, 17, who is eligible for the death penalty in Virginia despite his age.
Muhammad and Malvo were arrested Oct. 24 at a Maryland rest stop. The two are suspected in 21 shootings--14 of them fatal--in Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Washington state, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana.
In Spotsylvania, Fairfax and Prince William, the pair are charged with capital murder under two different code sections. Both carry only two possible sentences--life in prison or the death penalty.
One statute involves killing more than one person in a three-year period. The other--passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks--makes it a capital crime to kill in an attempt to terrorize the community. Authorities say the new but yet untested law would not require them to prove that the defendant actually pulled the trigger.
Prosecutors in Prince William and Fairfax plan to bring evidence of the other sniper shootings into their cases.
"These cases will require Prince William, Fairfax and Spotsylvania working together," Prince William Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney James Willett said yesterday. "Our cases all hinge each other, and the terror these two wrought around the region."
Two of the region's 13 sniper attacks happened in Spotsylvania County. On Oct. 4, a 43-year-old woman was wounded as she loaded packages into her minivan near Spotsylvania Mall. She is recovering at home.
On Oct. 11, a 53-year-old Philadelphia man was killed by a sniper's bullet as he pumped gas at the Four Mile Fork Exxon on U.S. 1.
In Prince William County, a 53-year-old Gaithersburg, Md., man was killed as he pumped gas at a Manassas gas station on Oct. 9. In Fairfax County, an FBI analyst was shot to death on Oct. 14 as she and her husband loaded their car with packages outside the Seven Corners Home Depot.
Witnesses spotted Malvo at the scene of three fatal Virginia shootings, and the teen's fingerprints were found on the semiautomatic rifle used in the rampage.
Finding out who pulled the trigger when will be a major part of the investigative team's efforts, prosecutors said yesterday.
Prince William's sniper team, headed by 1st Sgt. Rich Cantarella, includes veteran detectives Sam Newsome, Sam Walker and Tom Garrity, along with crime-scene analyst Ralph Dano.
Spotsylvania detectives Joe Cagnina and Doug Chewning--the original investigators on the local sniper shootings--have also been assigned to the team. Fairfax County police have assigned at least five of its detectives.