A 42-year-old man entered not guilty pleas today at the beginning of a trial over the killing of 10 people during a three-week reign of terror in and around Washington last year.

The trial of one of the Washington serial sniper suspects, accused of killing 10 people during a three-week reign of terror, was due to begin today.

Lawyers for Washington sniper suspect Lee Malvo are to mount an insanity defence at his murder trial, arguing that the teenager was a victim of “indoctrination” by his older co-defendant John Muhammad.

A judge has said 17-year-old sniper suspect John Lee Malvo can be tried as an adult, making him eligible for the death penalty.

Prosecutors seeking a death penalty case against 17-year-old sniper suspect John Lee Malvo said fingerprints on the murder weapon and other evidence linked him to three of the killings and a fourth attack that critically wounded a man.

JOHN LEE MALVO, the 17-year-old accused of a series of sniper attacks that terrorised the Washington DC suburbs, has admitted during a seven-hour interrogation that he carried out some of the killings, it was reported yesterday.

LOOKING unshaven and unkempt, Washington sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad made his first appearance in a Virginia state court yesterday, a state second only to Texas in executions of adults and juveniles.

THE latest three attacks linked to the elusive Washington area sniper were carried out near major highways that would have allowed the killer to come and go quickly.

A man was shot at a petrol station today, and police searching for a sniper closed down a nearby motorway after reports a white van had been seen in the area.

The death toll from the Washington sniper rose to seven as ballistics evidence linked the killer to a man gunned down at a Virginia petrol station.

Police were today trying to determine whether a man shot dead while pumping petrol in Virginia was the latest victim of the sniper who has terrorised the Washington area for a week.