States plan to seek death penalty for Malvo

CHESAPEAKE, Va. - Jurors in Lee Boyd Malvo's trial said in interviews Wednesday they started deliberations nearly evenly split over whether to send the 18-year-old sniper to death row.

But Malvo's age and the defense argument he had been influenced by sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad, a man he saw as a father figure, ultimately persuaded the panel to spare Malvo's life, some jurors said.

"As a group, I think we all went back and forth on our opinions," juror Deborah Moulse, 53, said. "For me, personally, I thought his age and the mitigating circumstances - the environment of his background and the influence of John Muhammad - were the biggest factors" tipping her choice to life.

But now, prosecutors in other states want a crack at winning a death sentence against him and Muhammad, who has been sentenced to die in Virginia.

Malvo and Muhammad have been linked to 20 shootings, including 13 deaths in Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Washington, D.C.

Both men are charged with murder in Baton Rouge, La., in the September 2002 killing of Hong Im Ballenger, who was shot in the head as she left work at the beauty supply house she managed.

John Sinquefield, chief assistant district attorney for East Baton Rouge Parish, said neither Malvo's age - he was 17 at the time of the killing - nor the argument that Malvo was under Muhammad's sinister influence will deter him from seeking the death penalty in the Ballenger case.

"I haven't seen anything that would make me believe that he didn't know right from wrong at the time he committed the crime or that he was mentally deficient," Sinquefield said. He said he will also seek the death penalty for Muhammad.

In Alabama, Muhammad and Malvo are charged with murder in a September 2002 shooting outside a Montgomery liquor store. District Attorney Ellen Brooks said she intends to bring both men to Alabama for trial and will seek the death penalty against both.

Muhammad and Malvo are scheduled for arraignment May 3 in Baton Rouge, a proceeding that has been postponed twice because of the Virginia cases. Sinquefield said he is willing to wait as long as it takes to get the two to trial in Baton Rouge.

"I don't care if it's seven years from now," the prosecutor said. "If I'm still around, they're going to be brought back and tried here in Baton Rouge for what they've done here."

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