Son of Cult Leader Loses Fight Against Extradition

The 19-year-old son of a cult leader wanted in Ohio in connection with the killings of a family of five was ordered Friday to be extradited next week.

Damon Lundgren, whose fight against extradition has progressed further than his father’s and two other cult members’, is to be given to Ohio authorities at 8 a.m. Wednesday, San Diego Municipal Judge Bill Woodward ordered.

Lundgren’s attorney, Tom Senters, protested the order because a writ has been filed with the California Supreme Court seeking to stay the proceedings until it can review the case.

Senters argued before Woodward that a continuance of the hearing should be granted because of the possibility that the high court might intervene.

Woodward disagreed, but ruled that Lundgren is not to leave the state until Wednesday, giving the Supreme Court time to intervene.

“I’m simply ordering an extradition. We will communicate this to the demanding state,” the judge said.

Lundgren’s father, Jeffrey Lundgren, 39, and two followers, Daniel Kraft, 25, and Kathryn Johnson, 36, are also fighting extradition to Lake County, Ohio, where the bodies of the five victims were found buried in a barn. Investigators believe they were killed execution style in a religious sacrifice for the cult, which numbered about 18.

Senters told the court that the Supreme Court clerk told him Thursday that the court had not decided whether to intervene.

“I have no knowledge as to how long it takes for the Supreme Court to act. I do not know when the Supreme Court received the writ,” Senters said.

“The court is actively reviewing the matter, as of yesterday,” Senters told the judge.

Senters said Damon Lundgren’s case has progressed faster than the others because he filed the legal papers before the other attorneys did.