Prosecution rests in Muhammad trial
Prosecutors explain seeking death penalty
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John Allen Muhammad
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CNN's Jeanne Meserve reports that prosecutors demonstrated how a sniper could have fired from the trunk of John Allen Muhammad's car.
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VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia (CNN) -- After 13 days of testimony involving more than 100 witnesses, prosecutors on Monday rested their capital murder and terrorism case against sniper shootings suspect John Allen Muhammad.
On the same day that jury selection began for the teenage co-defendant in last year's deadly shooting spree, prosecutors in the Muhammad trial also filed a memorandum outlining why they believe a "non-triggerman accomplice" would be eligible for Virginia's death penalty.
The 22-page document cites precedents from all the states that have the death penalty, as well as two Supreme Court precedents. Under Virginia law, prosecutors can pursue the death penalty only if they show a defendant was responsible for two murders within a three-year period.
Prosecutors believe Lee Boyd Malvo, Muhammad's alleged accomplice, pulled the trigger in some of the October 2002 sniper shootings in the Washington, D.C. area. The sniper shootings terrorized the suburbs of the nation's capital last year, killing 10 people and wounding three.
Muhammad is on trial for the October 9, 2002, shooting death of Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas-area gas station. But prosecutors have methodically presented evidence from numerous sniper shootings, trying to show that Muhammad was behind the attacks.
Co-defendant Lee Boyd, 18, is on trial for the October 14, 2002, shooting death of Linda Franklin at a store parking lot in Falls Church, Virginia.
Detective: 'Surreal' day of shootings
On Monday, witnesses testified about the terror caused by the shootings. The terrorism charge against Muhammad requires prosecutors to show that a murder defendant intended to intimidate the public or influence the government.
The final prosecution witness was Roger Thomson, a veteran Montgomery County, Maryland, homicide detective, who testified about being overwhelmed by the demands of responding to four shootings in a two-and-a-half hour period on the morning of October 3, 2002.
He said he still took time to call his mother to warn her not to go shopping in Kensington, Maryland -- the site of the final shooting that morning.
Thomson described the morning of that day as "surreal," saying he ran out of homicide detectives to dispatch to shooting scenes and hospitals.
Defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro objected to his testimony, saying it was repetitive and irrelevant. But Judge LeRoy Millette Jr. allowed it.
Prosecutor Paul Ebert said he had intended for Thomson to "recap" the shootings.
Schools took precautionary steps, official recounts
Earlier Monday, the head of security for Montgomery County, Maryland, public schools said that for the first time in its history, the school system initiated a "Code Blue" level of security immediately after a series of sniper shootings in the area on October 3, 2002 -- locking exterior doors, closing blinds, and placing paper over windows.
Edward A. Clarke described a constant state of fear and anxiety permeating the school system during the three-week spate of attacks.
The anxiety was heightened, he testified, when police found a note saying, "Your children are not safe."
Things worsened again, he said, on October 22, 2002, when bus driver Conrad Johnson was killed in the area in the early morning. Some Montgomery County schools had less than 10 percent attendance that day, he said.
Security officials for Fairfax County, Virginia, and Prince William County, Virginia, gave similar accounts of widespread fear.
Clarke said that on several occasions some schools were elevated to Code Red -- the highest level of security -- because of suspicious activity outside. Under Code Red, there was an immediate lockdown of all classrooms, he said.
FBI helicopters also flew low over some schools at the beginning and end of the school day, he said.
"Having witnessed that firsthand, it certainly left me with an eerie feeling and a sense of uncertainty."
Shootings had economic impact, witness testifies
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Fuller: Economic impact of shootings was $55 million.
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also on Monday, an economist testified that the sniper shootings reduced retail sales in Prince William County, Virginia, by $35 million during October of 2002.
One of the 13 victims attributed to the sniper shootings was shot in that county.
Stephen S. Fuller, a professor at George Mason University, said the total impact of the shootings to the local economy was $55 million, counting lost payroll and other factors.
Fuller also said the sniper shootings resulted in lost worker productivity. He said the average wage in the county was $29.50 per hour, and that on one occasion, 60,000 cars were stuck in one sniper-related traffic jam for three hours.
Defense Attorney Peter Greenspun objected to the testimony, saying that Fuller had not conducted the type of extensive research necessary to qualify him as an expert in the matter.
