Investigators have determined that a laptop computer seized from accused sniper John Allen Muhammad’s car was stolen Sept. 5 in a robbery-shooting outside a pizzeria in Prince George’s County, Md., law-enforcement sources said Tuesday.
They said they now consider Muhammad and John Lee Malvo strong suspects not only in that crime but also in another September shooting in Prince George’s County in which the same .22-caliber handgun was used.
The Sony Vaio laptop was found in the 1990 Chevrolet Caprice in which Muhammad and Malvo were arrested Oct. 24. The computer was stolen from Paul LaRuffa, who was shot six times shortly after closing Margellina’s Pizzeria, sources said. LaRuffa, 55, who has recovered from his wounds, also was robbed of $3,000, the day’s restaurant receipts.
Citing ballistics tests, police have said the .22-caliber pistol used to rob LaRuffa was used 10 nights later at a liquor store about 6 miles away. Employee Muhammad Rashid, 32, was closing the store Sept. 15 when he was shot once in the abdomen by an assailant who searched Rashid’s pockets and stole his wallet. Rashid has recovered from his wounds.
Also Tuesday, Muhammad was ordered held without bail after a 30-minute hearing before a federal magistrate in Greenbelt, Md.
Federal public defender James Wyda railed against the government’s case against Muhammad, saying, “It’s not hard to see the government’s case has significant problems.”
Wyda said the government’s extortion case hinges on a letter left at the scene of the Oct. 19 sniper shooting that wounded a man outside a restaurant in Ashland, Va.
The letter writer demanded that $10 million be deposited into a credit card account and threatened more violence if the money was not paid.
Wyda said the government has presented no evidence connecting Muhammad to the letter.
“The government must prove these chillingly random attacks … were motivated by a crackpot scheme,” Wyda said.
Since their arrest at a highway rest stop in Maryland, Muhammad and Malvo have been linked to unsolved crimes by local police and authorities nationwide.
They have been charged in Prince William, Spotsylvania and Hanover Counties in Virginia, Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland, in U.S. District Court in Maryland, in Alabama and in Louisiana.
The two also have been identified as suspects in a Sept. 14 sniper-type attack that wounded a clerk in a Silver Spring, Md., liquor store and the Feb. 16 shooting death of a woman in Washington state. Tuesday, police in Tucson, Ariz., said they were investigating Muhammad and Malvo in connection with a fatal March 19 shooting on a golf course.
