Canada Orders Murder Suspect Ng’s Extradition

OTTAWA — Charles Ng, wanted in California on 12 murder charges in a string of grisly sex-torture slayings, Thursday was ordered extradited by Canadian Justice Minister Doug Lewis.

But Ng, who lost one previous round of appeals in the courts, still has legal avenues open to stay in Canada.

Ng, 29, a former Marine, is charged with committing the crimes in 1985 at the remote mountain home of a companion, Leonard Lake, in Wilseyville in Calaveras County.

According to state and local investigators and hundreds of pages of court documents and evidence filed in Calaveras County, Ng and Lake have been linked to about two dozen slayings. The evidence includes at least one videotape of a murder victim.

Lake committed suicide in June, 1985.

In July, 1985, Ng was apprehended in Calgary, Alberta, during a scuffle with a department store security guard in which the guard was shot. Ng was convicted of attempted murder and is serving a 4 1/2-year sentence in Calgary.

California has cited as grounds for extradition 19 of 25 criminal charges that have been filed against Ng. Of the 19, 12 are for capital murder and the rest involve kidnaping, burglary and attempted murder.

Under the terms of the U.S.-Canada extradition treaty, Canada may refuse an extradition request unless state authorities in the United States assure Canada that the death penalty will not be imposed.

However, Justice Minister Lewis said in a letter to Ng’s lawyer: “I am satisfied that it is in the public interest to surrender Ng to the United States without seeking (death penalty) assurances.”

If fugitives charged with murder believed that they could avoid the death penalty by fleeing to Canada, Lewis added, the country “would become a safe haven for such criminals.” He said the government could not ignore the reality that the long border between the two countries affords many opportunities for fugitives to “move quickly, easily and frequently between both countries.”

Canadian Department of Justice spokeswoman Helene Ouellet said that Ng could be extradited to the United States in a “couple of days,” although she said the process could be delayed if Ng files an appeal in Canadian federal court.