TV producer ordered to Mexico on murder charges (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A judge on Tuesday ordered a former producer for the TV show "Survivor" extradited to Mexico to face charges that he killed his wife two years ago while they were on holiday in the resort town of Cancun.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Chooljian determined that Bruce Beresford-Redman, who has been jailed since November 2010 awaiting a decision, should be sent to Mexico for a trial because there was enough circumstantial evidence to show probable cause he could have murdered his wife.

The U.S. is required to send Beresford-Redman to Mexico within 60 days but he can appeal the judge's ruling, which would extend the process for an undetermined period of time, a spokeswoman for federal prosecutors said.

The badly beaten body of Monica Beresford-Redman was found in a sewer at a resort hotel where the couple and their children were vacationing in April 2010. Beresford-Redman had reported his wife was missing three days before she was found.

Mexican authorities believe the two had an argument, he beat her to death, then dumped her body.

Beresford-Redman has proclaimed his innocence, saying in a statement that he was "devastated at her loss" and "incensed at the suggestion" that he could have killed his wife.

At Tuesday's extradition hearing, defense attorneys Richard Hirsch and Vicki Podberesky claimed that statements from the couple's 6 year-old daughter suggested there was no animosity between them while on the Cancun vacation with their family.

But U.S. prosecutors, who have reviewed the case made by Mexican authorities, believe there is enough evidence to show Beresford-Redman killed his wife for three reasons: collecting insurance money, getting sole custody of their children and continuing an extramarital affair.

According to court papers filed in Los Angeles, Monica Beresford-Redman was hit on the head, her face and body were badly beaten and the cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation. Mexican police searched the couple's hotel room in Cancun and found blood spatter in several areas.

The couple's two young children are currently being raised by their grandparents.

(Reporting by Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by Greg McCune and Cynthia Johnston)

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Killer who fled Conn. in 1989 returned from Mexico (AP)

HARTFORD, Conn. – A man who was on the run from a murder conviction for the past two decades before being caught in Mexico was set to appear Thursday in the same Connecticut courthouse where a jury found him guilty.

Adam Zachs, 48, was flown from Mexico City to New York City late Wednesday and driven to Hartford. After his court appearance, he will be sent to prison to begin serving his 60-year sentence.

Zachs was convicted and sentenced in 1988 for shooting 29-year-old Peter Carone to death the year before outside a West Hartford restaurant. He was allowed to post bail while he appealed and fled in 1989.

Authorities got a tip and arrested Zachs in February in Leon Guanajuato, about five hours northwest of Mexico City. Police say he was living under the alias Ruben Fridman, was married with two children and ran a computer repair business there.

Zachs and Carone, who both grew up in West Hartford but barely knew each other, were at the restaurant watching a college basketball game when Carone made a joke that involved spitting on the bar, which angered Zachs, police said. The two went outside, and Zachs shot Carone in the back, police said.

After a jury convicted Zachs, he posted a $250,000 appeal bond with the help of his aunt and fled with the help of his father, authorities said.

The 78-year-old father, Frederick Zachs, pleaded guilty in federal court recently to helping his son flee the country and sending him money over the years. Frederick Zachs is set to be sentenced to up to five years in prison in August for harboring a fugitive.

Frederick Zachs told authorities that he arranged for his son to be driven to New York to catch a flight to Mexico in June 1989. The elder Zachs admitted that he sent money to his son over the years through others and stayed in touch with him using an intermediary in Brooklyn, N.Y., to send and receive letters. He also said he used prepaid phone cards to call his son from pay phones in Arizona and New Jersey from 2002 to 2005.

Adam Zachs' case was featured several times on the Fox TV show "America's Most Wanted," which reported that police in the early 1990s learned that Zachs was living in New Mexico with a woman who worked for Frederick Zachs' company. The woman told police that she and Zachs had lived together for a year and a half when one day he gave her money for a plane ticket and disappeared.

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