The State - News from May 12, 1988

An Alberta court granted a five-month delay in the extradition hearing of Charles Ng, a former U.S. Marine wanted by California authorities in 12 sex-torture slayings. Ng has been serving a 4 1/2-year prison term in Canada for shooting a store guard during his capture in Calgary, in 1985. His lawyer, Don Macleod, argued that he had insufficient time to prepare Ng’s defense because it involved 500 pages of documents and 82 affidavits supplied by U.S. authorities. Judge Marguerite Trussler in Edmonton, Alberta, agreed to delay the extradition hearing to Oct. 17 from May 24. A native of Hong Kong, Ng became the focus of an international manhunt in June, 1985, after his friend, Leonard Lake, committed suicide in a San Francisco police station by swallowing a cyanide pill. Police later found the remains of at least 11 people at Lake’s mountain retreat in Calaveras County.