Guinn signs warrant in hope of extraditing murder defendant

Wednesday, Nov. 24, 1999 | 10:56 a.m.

A Nevada governor's warrant to return fugitive Margaret Rudin to Las Vegas is on its way to Middlesex County, Mass., via the U.S. mail, a spokesman for Gov. Kenny Guinn said today.

A pre-trial hearing was held in Middlesex Court today for Rudin, 56, who is in jail in Framingham, Mass., fighting extradition to Nevada to stand trial for the murder of her millionaire husband, Ron Rudin.

The governor's warrant was signed by Gov. Kenny Guinn on Monday and returned to the Nevada Attorney General's office, from which it was mailed Tuesday, Guinn's spokesman Jack Finn said today.

It generally takes a month to 45 days for a governor's warrant to go through. Given the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the document probably will not be in the hands of Massachusetts authorities until early next week.

Metro Police Lt. Wayne Petersen, whose department will carry out the extradition, said he is still awaiting word to start that process. His choices include flying out two detectives to pick her up or using a surface transport prison van that could take several weeks to deliver her to Las Vegas.

Attempts to reach Rudin's attorney Randall Power and the Middlesex District Attorney's office for comment on today's court action were unsuccessful.

Rudin had been on the run for more than 2 1/2 years before she was captured by Massachusetts State Police on Nov. 5 at an apartment in Revere, Mass.

Ron Rudin's bullet-riddled, burned, decomposing body was found in January 1995 partially buried near Nelson's Landing at Lake Mojave. Rudin, a 64-year-old real estate agent, developer and gun dealer, had disappeared on Dec. 18, 1994.

Margaret Rudin also disappeared shortly after the Clark County Grand Jury returned an indictment charging her with her husband's death on April 18, 1997.

Police thought they had found Rudin in Phoenix in September 1998, but she slipped through the hands of Arizona authorities by using false identification papers. Later authorities searched her room at a YMCA and found identification with the name Margaret Rudin and a set of keys with a tag reading property of Ron Rudin.

During a 1996 civil trial Mark Solomon, an attorney for Rudin's trust, charged that the couple's marriage was on the verge of collapse. After Ron Rudin had gone to sleep one night, Margaret Rudin fired four or five bullets into his head, Solomon alleged.

The civil trial, and the evidence anticipated to result from it, was supposed to have solved the crime, but it ended prematurely in a settlement. The deal is purported to have left Margaret Rudin only about $500,000 of Ron Rudin's $11 million estate.