THE alleged leader of a two-man sniper team that killed ten members of the public, terrorising Washington DC for three weeks last year, pleaded not guilty at the opening of his trial yesterday.

John Muhammad answered “not guilty” four times as the charges were put to him. Two carry the death penalty.

Clean-shaven and wearing a white shirt and blue, patterned tie, Mr Muhammad presented a markedly different appearance to the courtroom in Virginia Beach from the unshaven figure in an orange prison jumpsuit to which the American public has become accustomed while awaiting his trial.

Asked if he understood the charges, the 42-year-old Gulf War veteran said that he did, adding: “I’m prepared for it, yes.”

After hearing his plea, the court began the process of selecting a jury, which is expected to take most of the rest of the week. More than 1,000 people have received summonses. Prosecutors will weed out anyone who opposes the death penalty, or who doubts whether they could impose it on a guilty man. Defence lawyers will eject any who say that they were seriously affected by the shooting spree in October last year, which shocked the Maryland and Virginia suburban communities around the nation’s capital and provided the world with a riveting drama as it unfolded.

With hundreds of thousands living within the killing zone chosen by the snipers, frightened people were to be seen crouching behind their cars as they filled up with petrol and zig-zagging quickly as they crossed open ground at forecourts, car parks and schools.

Those killed included a woman sitting on a bench, a bus driver preparing to start his shift and a woman loading the boot of her car, who was shot only because her husband had moved out of the gunman’s sights moments earlier.

In addition to the ten fatal shootings, Mr Muhammad and his 18-year-old alleged accomplice, Lee Malvo, are accused of three other shootings in the Washington area.

They are also suspected of fatal shootings in Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana in the weeks before their campaign of terror in Washington. Evidence recovered from the blue Chevrolet Caprice in which the two men were arrested included a Buckmaster .223 rifle, which forensic tests have linked to the shootings, and maps from a laptop computer that marked the sites of killings with skull-and-crossbones icons and getaway routes.

The boot of the vehicle was rigged as a sniper’s nest, with a small rectangular hole cut out above the registration plate.

Information recovered from the computer also included maps of West Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania appended with notes. Some were marked “good spot”, or “many ways out”, suggesting that the pair had been preparing to widen their area of operation to the states immediately north, west and south. The killers had proved skilled at evading the increasingly tight police dragnets swiftly thrown over the crime scenes.

Mr Muhammad is charged with the killing of Dean Meyers, 53, an engineer shot in the head when he stopped on his way home at a petrol station near Manassas, Virginia. Mr Meyers was the seventh victim.

Mr Muhammad will be the first person to be charged under new anti-terrorism legislation, introduced after September 11, 2001, which makes a killing intended to intimidate the public or influence the Government a capital crime. The charge relates to a $10 million (£6 million) demand sent by the killers shortly before they were caught.

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