Canada Warned of Fugitive ‘Haven’ Role

SACRAMENTO —  Gov. George Deukmejian told Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in a letter released Monday that Canada could become “a haven” for murder suspects fleeing prosecution because of its perceived reluctance to extradite fugitives facing the death penalty.

Deukmejian raised the issue in a letter praising the Canadian courts for finding, after lengthy legal maneuvering, that there is enough evidence to extradite mass murder suspect Charles Ng.

The governor, however, cited the case of a second murder suspect, Rudy Milan Blanusa, as evidence to support his belief that Canada’s slowness in returning criminal suspects to the United States for trial may encourage more fugitives from the death penalty to seek refuge in Canada, which has no capital punishment.

Blanusa, suspected of two murders near Modesto, was arrested by Canadian authorities Jan. 23 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Deukmejian said in the letter to Mulroney that Blanusa’s case is “an example of a death penalty fugitive fleeing the law for refuge in your country.”

Blanusa is a suspect in the murders of two brothers, whose bodies were found in a field south of Modesto 3 years ago. The Stanislaus County district attorney’s office has initiated extradition proceedings to return Blanusa to California.