Suspect in a 1988 Costa Mesa murder extradited

The man charged with the 1988 murder of a 22-year-old Costa Mesa woman was extradited Thursday to Orange County from the Michigan Department of Corrections, where he was serving a sentence for kidnapping and sexual assault, police said.

In June 2004, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Jason Michael Balcom, 35, on charges that he murdered Malinda Gibbons in the Costa Mesa apartment she shared with husband Kent Gibbons.

Kent Gibbons found his pregnant wife dead in their bedroom when he returned home from work. She had been strangled and stabbed in the chest. An examination also showed that Malinda had been sexually assaulted.

Balcom was being held in the Costa Mesa city jail as of late Friday. He is expected to be arraigned on the charges Monday in Orange County Superior Court, police said.