Una Sceon James, the mother of Jamaican sniper suspect, Lee Boyd Malvo, was escorted back to the island yesterday by four United States Marshals, and was whisked away from the Norman Manley Airport through a side exit by family members.

“She left in a special vehicle parked to the side of the ramp with family members who were waiting for her,” Detective Corporal Rohan McFarlane of the airport police told the Sunday Observer.

McFarlane said James’ family had previously made special arrangements to take her from immigration through a side entrance away from public view.

James, who was deported from the US, travelled to Jamaica on a US Marshal special aircraft and was handed over to Jamaican Special Branch police for processing.

But McFarlane said James, who had used false documents to enter the US, was not wanted by local police for any crimes and was, therefore, released.

James was ordered deported on November 20 after she was picked up by the Immigration and Naturalisation Service for illegal entry into the US. She failed to file an appeal within 30 days of the deportation order, opting instead to apply for voluntary departure, which was refused.

Her 17 year-old son, Malvo, was arrested in October with his American step-father, John Allen Muhammad in connection with 10 sniper murders in Montgomery County Virginia, Maryland in September.

Malvo is alleged to have entered the US from Antigua using false documents issued by Muhammad.

According to a court document filed by immigration judge Anna Ho, dated November 20, James testified that she entered the US in 1999 from Antigua.

In January this year, she was arraigned in court and testified that she paid Muhammad US$5,500 for false documents for her son and herself to indicate that they were US citizens. The false documents, she said, included birth certificates, identifications and airline tickets. They entered the US through Puerto Rico, flying from Antigua.

According to the court document, James testified that after she entered the US she applied for asylum, alleging that her niece and nephew in Jamaica had been murdered by an unknown gunman in what appeared to be politically-motivated killings. She feared that she and her family would also be killed, so she started travelling. She was told that Jamaicans were seldom granted asylum in the US and she withdrew the application.

James, in her quest to obtain lawful status in the US, entered into a business marriage with Jeremiah Neal in Fort Myres, Florida in April 2001. The marriage agreement, she told the court, was to cost $2,500, but she ended up paying between $800 and $900. She filed divorce petition eight months later.

James testified in court that she had no knowledge of the crimes her son had committed. She further testified that her son had gone to Washington DC from Florida in March this year and she wondered where he was.

She said she failed to persuade him to remain in Florida but had not seen him since March. She told the court that her son did not come to the US until June 2001 and that he travelled with Muhammad who had made the necessary arrangements to smuggle him in.