Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has requested that Idaho authorities extradite suspected serial killer

Return engagement
Extradition of area slaying suspect sought
Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 02/10/2007 01:00:00 AM PST

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has requested that Idaho authorities extradite suspected serial killer Joseph Edward Duncan III to California to face charges in the 1997 slaying of a 10-year-old Beaumont boy.

The governor issued the requisition to Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter late Thursday, said Bill Maile, a Schwarzenegger spokesman.

Duncan, 43, was charged Jan. 18 in Riverside County with the April 4, 1997, slaying of Anthony Martinez, who was abducted from outside his Beaumont home while playing with his younger brother and neighborhood friends. A ranger with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management found Anthony's nude and battered body under a jumble of rocks in a remote canyon in Indio about two weeks later.

Riverside County prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty against Duncan.

Investigators with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department believe Duncan used a rock to bash Anthony's head in after sexually assaulting him. A partial thumbprint found on a piece of duct tape that was used to bind Anthony's hands together matched Duncan's, authorities said.

Duncan later admitted to Anthony's slaying while in custody in Idaho for the May 2005 slayings of Brenda Groene, her fiance Mark
McKenzie and Groene's 13-year-old son Slade in Coeur D'Alene. Duncan pleaded guilty in an Idaho courtroom in October to their murders as part of a plea bargain with prosecutors, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Duncan is also suspected of abducting Groene's daughter, Shasta, 8, and her other son, Dylan, 9. Dylan was killed at a remote Montana campsite, and Shasta was rescued after a waitress spotted Duncan with the girl and notified authorities.

MORE >>

http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_5199825