Los Angeles Police Department veteran detective Rick Jackson and his colleagues — Richard Bengtson, Tim Marcia and Eri Poss — arrived here Tuesday night from Guam to bring Kazuyoshi Miura, 61, to Los Angeles.
The detectives were here last month but went home empty handed after the local Supreme Court ordered a stay on Miura’s extradition.
Last week, however, Miura agreed to voluntarily leave Saipan.
His decision to stop fighting his extradition came after an L.A. judge ruled to drop his murder charge due to double-jeopardy issues. Murder is punishable by death or life imprisonment in California.
The judge, however, said L.A. prosecutors can still prosecute Miura for conspiracy to commit murder which carries a sentence of 25 years to life.
Jackson refused to say exactly when they will transport Miura to L.A. but expressed hope that this time justice will be served to his then-28-year-old wife Kazumi who died a year after she was shot in the head by an unknown assailant.
“Things are a little different this time. It looks like we will be transporting Mr. Miura back to California. Before everybody ask, we’re not going to disclose when we would be leaving. But I’m sure everybody knows already,” Jackson said during a press conference at the airport.
He said they would have flown to Saipan as early as last week but Bengtson was called to testify in court in a 1988 sexual-assault murder case. L.A. prosecutors won that case.
“We got a conviction from a 1988 murder which is ironic because that’s the year that we got the warrant for Mr. Miura for the murder and conspiracy charges in this case. That was a good win for us,” the detective said.
“We’re obviously going to be taking him back. We’re glad that we’re moving forward and get back to California and get things started there with the process of his preliminary hearing which we’re not sure when that would occur,” he added.
The LAPD agents said all the paper work involved in Miura’s extradition has been completed and it’s just a matter of transporting him to L.A.
Asked how he feels “catching up” with Miura, Jackson said: “Well, I’ve been on the case for 20 years or since 1988. It’s good to get him back to California. He’s never been there that we know of since the warrant was issued in 1988 so it’s over due and we’ll proceed however the courts allow us to.”
He said Miura will be arraigned within 48 hours upon his arrival in L.A. not counting weekends.
Preliminary hearing will be scheduled as soon as possible and then the trial will begin.
He refused to say if the prosecution or the LAPD will present new evidence to bolster its case against Miura.
“We’re not going to get in the evidence at all…. The prosecutors thought it was sufficient to prosecute and convict Mr. Miura. That’s all I’m going to say on that. When the court goes on preliminary hearing, the evidence will come out and it will stand on its own,” said Jackson.
