SEATTLE (AP):
THE MOTHER of teenage sniper suspect John Lee Malvo has been deported to Jamaica, a federal official confirmed Friday.The Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that Una James, 38, was en route to Jamaica, her home country. She left Seattle Thursday night for Miami and was to be flown Friday from there to Jamaica, the official said.
Miss James was taken into custody by Immigration and Naturalisation Service officers Tuesday. Her attorneys had notified the INS a day earlier that she would not appeal a deportation order issued by an immigration judge on November 19.
That order had followed James' withdrawal of a petition seeking special protection in the US.
James entered the country illegally in 2000 and recently had been living in an undisclosed area about an hour from Seattle. She has no family here and reportedly has been unable to speak with her son since his arrest in October. She has made no public statements about the case.
Malvo, 17, and John Allen Muhammad, 41, are suspected of shooting 18 people, killing 13 of them, in Maryland, Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Washington, D.C. They were arrested at a rest stop in Maryland in Oct. 24, ending a three-week shooting spree in the Washington, D.C. area that left 10 people dead and three others seriously wounded. Both are charged with capital murder.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for January 14 in Fairfax County, Virginia, to determine whether Malvo will be tried as an adult and face the death penalty in the shooting of FBI analyst Linda Franklin.
LOCAL NOTE: Miss James did not arrive at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, yesterday afternoon as expected. A sub-officer at the Immigration Department told The Gleaner that she had not arrived up to late evening. It is now reported that she is expected to arrive in the island sometime today.
