Snipers won’t be charged in state

TACOMA – Washington, D.C.-area snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo will not face charges in Washington state for the killing of Keenya Cook in February 2002, the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office said Wednesday.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jerry Costello said there would be little point in putting on an expensive trial in Tacoma when the pair already face the death penalty or life in prison in Virginia.

“We know Malvo killed Ms. Cook. We’re convinced of that, and we’re convinced Muhammad was an accomplice,” Costello said. “We would not be able to obtain any punishment in Washington that would be greater than life without release or the death penalty, which has already been obtained.”

Cook, 21, was shot Feb.16, 2002, in the doorway of her aunt and uncle’s home in Tacoma. Malvo told police and psychiatrists the shooting was Muhammad’s way of testing him.

Cook’s aunt, Isa Nichols, did some accounting for Muhammad’s auto repair business and sided with Muhammad’s wife in the couple’s divorce. Investigators believe she – not Cook – may have been the intended target.

Muhammad and Malvo lived in the Tacoma area and in Bellingham before heading east and beginning their terrifying string of random sniper shootings, which left 10 people dead in October 2002.

Malvo, 19, admitted being the trigger man and has been sentenced to life in prison for two of the killings so far. He could still face the death penalty in other prosecutions.

Muhammad, 43, is on Virginia’s death row for his role.

Cook’s mother, Pamala Nichols, has sued Muhammad and Malvo in Pierce County Superior Court, seeking to seize any profits they might gain from the case. She is also seeking unspecified damages from Tacoma resident Earl Dancy Jr., 35, a friend of Muhammad and Malvo who owned the .45-caliber handgun used to shoot her daughter.