Malvo 'linked to four shootings'

US PROSECUTORS looking to bring a death penalty case against 17-year-old sniper suspect John Lee Malvo said fingerprints on the murder weapon and other evidence link him to three slayings and a fourth attack that left a man critically wounded.

Prosecutor Robert F Horan Jr also said Malvo tried to extort more than $10 million from authorities in

exchange for stopping last autumn's attacks, making his demands through a pair of notes and two phone calls.

"All of this was an attempt tointimidate the government to pay in excess of $10 million for these defendants and this defendant in particular to stop the shooting," Horan said at a juvenile court hearing to determine whether Malvo should be tried as an adult and possibly face the death penalty.

The extortion allegation is a keyelement of a new Virginia anti-terrorism law that allows the death penalty for killers convicted of trying to intimidate the public or coerce government policy. Malvo is also charged under a law that allows the death penalty for a suspect who commits multiple murders.

Even if the judge decides against Horan, the prosecutor has the option of obtaining a direct indictment from a grand jury.

Malvo and John Allen Muhammad, 42, are accused of killing 13 people and wounding five more in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC last year. They are being tried first in Virginia, Malvo in Fairfax Co and Muhammad in nearby Prince William Co. Authorities have previously said Malvo's prints were found on the Bushmaster rifle used in the killings.

Defence attorneys did not make an opening statement during the hearing, which included tearful testimony from a man who recalled the splatter of blood against his cheek as his wife, FBI analyst Linda Franklin, was gunned down October 14.

Malvo, who at times rested his head on the desk where he sat with his counsel, faces two counts of capital murder in that slaying.

Horan said prosecutors will use fingerprints found on the rifle to link Malvo to four shootings: Ms Franklin, the October 9 slaying of Dean Meyers in Prince William Co, the October 22 slaying of Montgomery Co bus driver Conrad Johnson and the

October 19 shooting of a man near an Ashland restaurant.