Nathaniel Osbourne, the Jamaican man living in New Jersey who was detained as a material witness in the Washington-area sniper attacks, has been released by the authorities after nearly two weeks in custody, the New York Times reported yesterday.

Osbourne, 26, an aspiring reggae singer, was the subject of an intensive manhunt last month after it emerged that he co-owned the 1990 Chevrolet Caprice that sniper suspects, John Muhammad and Lee Malvo, used during the interstate killing spree.

According to the Times, law enforcement officials have not charged Osbourne with any crime, and released him last Friday on the condition that he remain at the home of his mother, a few blocks from the gold-leafed dome that tops the State House in Trenton, New Jersey.

The newspaper said it was unable to get Osbourne to discuss his relationship with the suspects. However, he said he had been "through hell" since his October 26 arrest in Flint, Michigan, where he said he had gone to woo a woman he had met the previous summer.

"I did something out of the kindness of my heart and I got in a big mess," he said of the help he offered Muhammad in buying and registering the car. "I didn't do anything wrong. I just want my life to fall back to its rightful place," the New York Times report said.

The newspaper also reported Osbourne's lawyer, Paul F Kemp, as saying that under the terms of his release, Osbourne must stay at home unless he is out searching for work. Osbourne, the paper said, has held a series of low-paying jobs in recent years.
Federal officials in Washington, the Times reported, confirmed that Osbourne had been held as a material witness and was not a suspect.

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