WESTMINSTER : Suspect’s Extradition Is Delayed Again

A foul-up Tuesday in the paperwork pipeline once again delayed the extradition from Grand Junction, Colo., of Douglas Frederick Stanley of Westminster to face murder charges in the July 8 shootings of his sister-in-law and one of her employees at a Fountain Valley embroidery shop.

In a court hearing that lasted less than five minutes, Mesa County District Judge Chuck Buss found the legal paperwork in the case incomplete and said he could not approve of sending Stanley, 57, back to California without it.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Brown said it was his understanding that the indictment and arrest warrant affidavit are being mailed from California and should arrive next week. Buss scheduled another extradition hearing for Tuesday.

Stanley, being held without bond, said nothing during the short proceedings. Before it began, he examined papers given to him by Deputy Public Defender David Eisner and talked briefly with him. Stanley has grown a beard since his last court appearance Aug. 10, when Brown first reported the paperwork problems that have slowed the extradition.

He said the arrest warrant affidavit and indictment were apparently sent from Orange County to the office of Gov. Pete Wilson, who signed a governor’s warrant requesting extradition and then sent it to Colorado Gov. Roy Romer. Romer signed the warrant and had it faxed to Grand Junction, but the necessary attachment did not arrive with it, officials said.

Brown wasn’t sure whether the documents were held up in Wilson’s office or Romer’s.

Stanley is accused of shooting his sister-in-law, Joyce Stanley, 52, and Terry Vasquez, a 41-year-old employee at the Design-It embroidery shop on Slater Avenue on July 8 before fleeing the area. Police have not disclosed a motive in the killings.

Three days later, after a nationwide manhunt, the onetime ranch hand was arrested at a roadside rest stop in Parachute, a small western Colorado town about 45 miles east of Grand Junction.