LOS ANGELES (AP) - A reality television producer charged with killing his wife while on vacation in Mexico is being sent from California to Cancun to await trial, a spokesman for his attorneys said Wednesday.
The attorneys were notified that former “Survivor” producer Bruce Beresford-Redman was being extradited, spokesman Stephen Jaffe said.
The producer has been charged in Mexico in the death of his wife, Monica Beresford-Redman, whose body was found in a sewer cistern at a swank resort following an April 2010 family vacation.
Bruce Beresford-Redman opted in December not to appeal a U.S. court ruling upholding his extradition. Mexican authorities later said they had reached an agreement for his return.
Beresford-Redman has denied that he killed his wife and his attorneys have attacked evidence in the case.
The U.S. Marshals Service would not comment on Beresford-Redman’s extradition, citing a policy against discussing prisoner movements.
Beresford-Redman was arrested on a fugitive warrant in the Los Angeles area in November 2010. Mexican and U.S. authorities say he left the country without permission, although Beresford-Redman’s lawyers have claimed he was under no obligation to stay and needed to return to the U.S. to help care for his children.
The family of Monica Beresford-Redman said the extradition “marks a major milestone in our journey to ensure justice for Monica.”
“After nearly 15 months in United States custody, Bruce will finally be returned to Mexico to stand trial for Monica’s murder,” attorney Alison Triessl wrote in a statement released on behalf of the family.
Triessl said the family will follow the case in Mexico and will ask for the maximum sentence if Beresford-Redman is convicted. The maximum sentence could be 12 to 30 years in prison.
U.S. prosecutors presented statements from hotel guests who said they heard loud arguing and cries of distress coming from the couple’s room on the night Monica Beresford-Redman went missing.
The producer’s attorneys have claimed the noises came from Beresford-Redman and his children playing loud games throughout the night and that there isn’t any forensic evidence that he killed his wife.
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Anthony McCartney can be reached at https://twitter.com/mccartneyAP
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