Malvo Questioned In Arizona Shooting

Sniper Lee Boyd Malvo was interviewed yesterday by two Arizona homicide detectives investigating the March 2002 slaying of a 60-year-old man who was shot while playing golf, Malvo's attorneys said.

For years, Tucson police have considered Malvo a suspect in the killing of Jerry R. Taylor. But the detectives' interest in questioning him intensified after The Washington Post reported in June that Malvo had recently told authorities in Montgomery County that he and John Allen Muhammad were responsible for numerous shootings -- including Taylor's -- outside the Washington area.

Malvo's attorneys and one of the Tucson investigators declined to describe the substance of the jailhouse interview, but the defense attorneys have described the young sniper as repentant and eager to make amends with relatives of sniper victims.

"What was said is part of an ongoing criminal investigation, and the information will be coming from authorities in Tucson," said William C. Brennan, one of Malvo's attorneys.

Brennan and Timothy J. Sullivan, Malvo's other attorney, said the interview at the Montgomery County jail was part of a broad effort to resolve Malvo's legal problems in jurisdictions outside the Washington area. The effort ostensibly involves having Malvo cooperate with authorities investigating suspected sniper shootings that remain unsolved.

The potential benefit for Malvo -- who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release in Virginia -- would be to work out a deal that would allow him to serve time in a federal prison rather than a maximum security penitentiary in Virginia. Officials in Virginia, which has primary custody, are firmly opposed to that possibility.

Malvo was brought to Montgomery County last year because he is charged with six counts of first-degree murder there; he has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

Taylor's daughter, Cheryll Witz, sent Malvo a letter this year asking him to confess to her father's killing. She has said she doesn't want Malvo prosecuted for the crime but has vigorously sought a confession.

"I just want closure," she said. "I don't want to fight anymore."

Malvo and Muhammad have long been suspected in Taylor's killing because, as with the Washington area shootings, it involved a shot from a high-powered rifle from afar. Investigators established that the snipers passed through Arizona in spring 2002 on their way east from the West Coast, and Malvo told a corrections officer in Maryland that he shot a man on a golf course.

One of the investigators assigned to the case flew to Washington on Wednesday with Capt. Bill Richards, who oversees the department's violent crimes division. Richards, reached on his cellphone yesterday afternoon, confirmed that he was in the Washington area "conducting an ongoing investigation." He declined to provide details.

Richards said he expects to present the information to prosecutors in Pima County, which includes Tucson.