As authorities in Arizona investigated a potentially new piece of the deadly cross-country puzzle left by the Washington-area snipers, a lawyer for one of the suspects said yesterday that the U.S. government has alleged a "crackpot extortion scheme" as a way to force the impending serial killings trial into federal court.

Police in Tucson, Ariz., were re-examining the March 19 killing of a food salesman shot while practicing chip shots at a local golf course. FBI officials notified Tucson authorities that John Allen Muhammad, 41, and Lee Boyd Malvo, 17, were in the area at the time, visiting Muhammad's sister.

The victim, Jerry R. Taylor, 60, was believed to have been shot with a rifle in a killing that bears striking similarities to the more recent sniper attacks. Authorities released few details about the case yesterday and refused to say whether they were conducting ballistic tests that could conclusively tie the killing to the alleged nationwide shooting rampage.

Muhammad and Malvo are charged with murder in Maryland, Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana and the District of Columbia. They also are suspects in a February shooting death in Washington state and - like in Arizona - police across the country are investigating whether the pair could be linked to a range of unsolved crimes.

In Baltimore, city police have conducted their own review and have found no cases that appear connected.

Justice Department officials are expected to decide this week where the two men, in federal custody, will stand trial first. A judge in Greenbelt ordered Muhammad held without bail at a detention hearing yesterday, one day after a similar order was handed down in Baltimore for Malvo.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jillyn K. Schulze ruled that Muhammad was a flight risk and a danger to the community after federal prosecutor James Trusty said the Army veteran had used multiple names and birth dates, was arrested by immigration officials in April as part of a passport fraud investigation in Antigua, and in recent months had been "living out of his car, living state-to-state."

Burden of proof

Federal public defender James Wyda questioned why federal charges have been filed in the case. A 20-count criminal complaint filed last week charged Muhammad with using a firearm to commit murder as part of an interstate extortion scheme, a charge that could bring the death penalty.

Wyda said in court that prosecutors were attempting to "shoehorn this case into the federal courts," where there is no general murder statute. He noted that authorities did not receive any demands for money until Oct. 19 - after at least nine people had been killed - and that investigators have not claimed the handwriting on that letter matches Muhammad's.

"This is no longer a murder case; this is an extortion case," Wyda said outside the court. "They can't prove extortion. They can't meet their burden of proof in making this a federal case."

Stolen card

Even before golf course killing was raised as a possible part of Muhammad and Malvo's alleged trail, Arizona was expected to play a key role for prosecutors building an extortion case.

The Oct. 19 letter found at the scene of a shooting in Ashland, Va., demanded that $10 million be wired to a Bank of America account and identified the account's credit card number.

That card turned out to have been stolen from an Arizona bus driver in mid-March, law enforcement sources have said. Court records show that the card was used April 9 in Tacoma, Wash. - what is believed to have been the two men's next stop - to buy $12.01 worth of gasoline.

In Arizona yesterday, dozens of agents from the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms swarmed over the Fred Enke Golf Course looking for clues in the nearly 8-month-old slaying.

Witnesses told police they heard what sounded like a gunshot about 1 p.m. March 19. Roughly an hour later, two golfers discovered Taylor's body. Taylor, who had been practicing his short game in an area next to a large swath of desert, was fatally shot in the midsection by a high-powered rifle, law enforcement officials said.

'Drag marks'

Jason Arrotta, an assistant golf pro at the course, said he heard the shot and was one of the first people to reach Taylor. Arrotta said that Taylor was apparently shot in the chipping area - there was a large pool of blood next to the man's hat and golf bag - but the body was found about 50 feet away, under a bush in the desert adjacent to the course.

"It looked like he had been dragged into the desert," Arrotta said. "I don't think he stumbled in there. There weren't any footprints. There were drag marks."

Police said at the time that robbery might have been a motive for the killing, but it is unclear if anything was stolen.

"I thought it was a hit," Arrotta said. "His wallet was still there."