Ex-Sen. Carpenter Extradited to U.S. : Crime: Fighting cancer, former legislator loses final legal battle to avoid being returned from Costa Rica.

After languishing for months in a Costa Rican jail, fugitive former state Sen. Paul Carpenter was on his way back to California and a possible sentence of up to nine years in prison Friday on political corruption charges.

Carpenter, who is suffering from advanced prostate cancer, lost the last legal skirmish in his battle to avoid extradition.

The Democratic politician was taken in handcuffs from his hospital bed, driven to the airport and turned over to U.S. Consul General Ken Sackett.

Accompanied by two U.S. deputy marshals from Florida, he boarded a flight for Miami, where he will spend the weekend in a local jail. On Monday, deputies from the U.S. marshal’s office in Sacramento will take custody of the onetime legislator and state Board of Equalization member and escort him back to California.

In Sacramento, Carpenter will be given a complete medical exam and will be brought before U.S. District Judge Edward J. Garcia for sentencing, perhaps as early as next week.

In a recent interview at Costa Rica’s largest public hospital, Carpenter said his cancer was spreading and he had only 15 months to live. He had asked authorities to delay his extradition so he could undergo surgery, but on Tuesday he lost his last appeal.

At the airport Friday, the 66-year-old politician was dressed in a pink and blue polo shirt and baggy blue jeans. It was clear that his health has been failing: Beneath a thick gray beard that he has grown since his arrest, his face had become gaunt, his skin ashen. He has lost considerable weight since he was apprehended by Costa Rican authorities and jailed pending extradition.

However, U.S. Atty. Charles J. Stevens in Sacramento said that medical authorities in Costa Rica said Carpenter was fit to travel.

After his conviction in December on 11 counts of mail fraud, obstruction of justice and money laundering, Carpenter was released without bail. He disappeared before he could be sentenced in February, leaving a note to the judge that said: “I find my drive for survival stronger than my sense of obligation to your legal system.”

U.S. officials located him at a hotel in San Jose, traveling under the alias Paul Bruce--using his middle name as his surname. But he left the hotel before the paperwork was completed to enable Costa Rican police to make an arrest.

He was finally tracked down and apprehended in April at a suburban condominium he shared with another U.S. expatriate, but until Friday he had managed to fight extradition through a series of legal maneuvers.

American officials thought that the matter was settled more than a week ago and deputy marshals flew here Nov. 8 to transport him back. However, Carpenter’s attorneys were able to delay his extradition one more time by filing additional appeals, claiming that he was a political prisoner and seeking a delay so that he could undergo surgery.

U.S. Atty. Stevens has said he has no plans to pursue charges against Carpenter for unlawful flight.

Free-lance reporter Brian Harris reported from San Jose, Times staff writer Paul Jacobs from Sacramento.