Court allows extradition of Nevada suspect in Colorado killings
CARSON CITY — The Nevada Supreme Court will not stop the extradition of a Nevada inmate accused of killing four people in Colorado more than three decades ago.
In a ruling issued Friday, the Nevada Supreme Court unanimously denied Alexander Christopher Ewing’s appeal of a lower court’s decision to extradite him to Colorado to face murder charges in connection with the slayings in a Denver suburb in 1984.
Ewing, 59, has been in prison in Nevada since 1984 serving eight to 40 years on an attempted murder conviction.
In that case, Ewing attacked Henderson couple Christopher and Nancy Barry with an ax handle inside their home on Racetrack Road the same August day he escaped from a Mohave County, Arizona, sheriff’s van. Ewing bolted from the van, which was taking him from St. George, Utah, where he was serving time because of jail overcrowding, to Arizona, when it stopped for gas on Boulder Highway.
Law enforcement officials in Colorado believe DNA evidence ties Ewing to the death of Patricia Louise Smith, a 50-year-old grandmother killed in the Denver suburb of Lakewood, as well as Bruce and Debra Bennett and their 7-year-old daughter, Melissa, who were killed in their Aurora, Colorado, home in January 1984. Only the Bennetts’ youngest child, 3-year-old Vanessa, survived the attack.
In 2002, Colorado prosecutors obtained a John Doe arrest warrant in the Bennett killings, according to The Denver Post. It included three counts of first-degree murder and several other charges, including sexual assault.
Contact Capital Bureau Chief Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.