WASHINGTON - Apparent evidence that Lee Boyd Malvo, the younger of two suspects charged in the Washington-area sniper shootings, was the gunman in most of the attacks could complicate the case against the other suspect, John Allen Muhammad, senior law enforcement officials said yesterday.

As defense lawyers for Malvo, 17, pledged to try to have statements that their client made late last week to authorities in Fairfax County, Va., barred from his trial, lawyers close to both suspects' defense teams said that those statements could be used to help Muhammad, 41, in Prince William County, Va., where he has been charged with murder and terrorism.

"There is some concern that the juvenile's statements could be used as exculpatory evidence to clear Muhammad of being the gunman in Prince William," a local law enforcement official said yesterday.

Malvo was sent to Fairfax County, where he is to be tried in the killing of Linda Franklin, 47, an FBI analyst shot Oct. 14 in a Home Depot parking garage in Falls Church. Muhammad was sent to Prince William County to be tried in the killing Oct. 9 of Dean Harold Meyers, 53, at a gas station in Manassas.

Law enforcement officials said Malvo told police that he fired the bullets that killed Meyers and two others, including Franklin.