(Spencer)– A Mexican national whose murder conviction in Clay county was overturned has been extradited to face murder charges in Minnesota for the 1997 death of the same teenager.
Juan Humerto-Castillo had been fighting efforts to have him sent to Jackson county to face charges there in the torture and murder of Gregory “Sky” Erickson.
In a ruling filed in Clay County District Court, Judge David Lester denies Castillo-Alvarez’s petition for a writ of Habeas Corpus. The judge ordered his immediate transfer to Jackson county.
Castillo-Alvarez was returned to Iowa from Mexico in 2004 to stand trial in Clay county in Erickson’s death. He was convicted of second degree murder, but it was overturned last fall by the Iowa Court of Appeals which ruled Castillo-Alvarez was denied his right to a speedy trial.
Erickson was kidnapped from his home and was taken to an abandoned farm house near Petersburg, Minnesota where he was tortured and killed over what authorities say was a drug debt.
