POSTED: 6:00 pm PDT August 29, 2006
UPDATED: 7:36 pm PDT August 29, 2006
SANTA ROSA -- A Colorado judge on Tuesday ordered John Mark Karr sent to Sonoma County to face child *advertiser censored* charges, while local authorities said they would re-examine his computer for more illicit images.
The extradition order came a day after prosecutors in Colorado abruptly dropped their case against Karr in the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, saying DNA tests failed to put him at the crime scene despite his insistence he sexually assaulted and strangled the 6-year-old beauty queen.Karr is being held in a Boulder jail until he can be sent back to Santa Rosa to face five misdemeanor child *advertiser censored* charges.
District Judge Roxanne Bailin in Boulder ordered Karr sent to California by Sept. 13, saying he had violated terms of his bond in that state by failing to show up for a hearing on the *advertiser censored* charges.
Meanwhile, at a Sonoma County court hearing, a prosecutor and a lawyer for the sheriff's department called the Karr investigation "ongoing," and said deputies have asked for a new warrant to search Karr's hard drive because technology has advanced in the five years since the original probe.If convicted, Karr could get a year in prison on each count.
But authorities may want to push for more jail time if investigators turn up new evidence from Karr's computer.New information also came to light Tuesday about the sharing of information about Karr between California and Colorado.
Sonoma County sheriff's officials have said they forwarded information about Karr to Boulder authorities back in 2001 because of his apparent fascination with the 1996 murder of JonBenet. While he stopped short of confessing, they said he made "uncertain allusions to placing himself in the killer's role," arousing their suspicions.
However, Tom Bennett, chief investigator for the Boulder County district attorney's office disputed that Tuesday, saying he didn't learn of Karr's possible connection to JonBenet until earlier this month. more at link:
http://www.ktvu.com/news/9759188/detail.html