Famalaro Extradition Effort Begins : Courts: Judge signs papers and forwards them to Gov. Wilson’s office. He is expected to take action next week in effort to bring Huber slaying suspect to trial in California.

Gov. Pete Wilson’s office received extradition papers Friday that would force Arizona murder suspect John J. Famalaro to return to California for trial in one of Orange County’s most notorious missing person cases.

Newport Beach Municipal Judge Margaret R. Anderson confirmed Friday that on Wednesday she signed papers that would move the former Lake Forest house painter from the Prescott, Ariz., jail where he has been held since last month.

Famalaro was arrested after Arizona authorities found the body of Denise Huber, a Newport Beach waitress, inside a freezer in the driveway of his country club home.

“This should get things rolling,” Anderson said Friday.

The extradition documents were shipped Thursday to the governor’s office. Wilson spokesman Kevin Herglotz confirmed Friday that the governor’s legal staff has begun reviewing them.

“If everything is in order, the governor is expected to take action next week,” Herglotz said. “He will process it just as soon as possible.”

Orange County Assistant Dist. Atty. John Conley said the extradition papers detail evidence linking Famalaro to the crime and supporting his office’s extradition request. The items include a photograph of the suspect, fingerprints, laboratory test results, a brief summary of the case and other evidence, Conley said.

Famalaro, 37, is accused of kidnaping and murdering Huber, then 23, in 1991 and carting around her nude, handcuffed body in a running freezer.

The suspect refused to waive extradition after his arrest last month in Arizona’s Yavapai County. A hearing there is set for Aug. 29.

Famalaro’s defense attorneys in Orange County and Arizona could not be reached for comment Friday.

Huber, a UC Irvine graduate, vanished June 3, 1991, after her car had a blowout on the Corona del Mar Freeway as she headed home from a rock concert.

Her parents and local police launched a nationwide search for her. But Huber’s whereabouts remained a mystery until Arizona law enforcement officers found her frozen body locked in the back of a stolen rental truck parked in the driveway of Famalaro’s Prescott Country Club home.

Huber died from nearly a dozen blows to the head; results of an autopsy and forensic tests may reveal whether she had been sexually assaulted.

Authorities believe Huber was abducted and taken to a Laguna Hills storage facility where Famalaro was living at the time. Authorities believe she was murdered there and possibly kept in an upright freezer before Famalaro purchased a chest-high freezer just a few days after her disappearance.

Conley said he does not expect the extradition request to speed up the hearing scheduled for later this month. Conley noted that the documents must still be forwarded to Arizona Gov. Fife Symington, a process that could take several days.

“Don’t forget this could all end tomorrow if he just waives extradition,” Conley said. “We’re just being prepared for everything.”

The prosecutor said that although his office is moving as quickly as possible, his case will not suffer if it takes longer than expected to bring Famalaro back to Orange County.

“Ideally, if everything goes smoothly, it could take a month,” Conley said. “But it’s not a problem at all if it goes as much as three months.”

A Yavapai County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman, Laurie Berra, said Friday that the orders issued in Orange County were required in preparation for the extradition hearing later this month.

“We have no doubt he is going back there,” Berra said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he dropped the challenge before the hearing. It’s pretty much known that he and his attorneys needed to buy a little more time to get things organized.

“That’s all right because he’s been upstairs (in the Yavapai County Jail) just hanging out and being very quiet.”