Despite confessing his involvement in the 1987 slaying of an elected official in Haskell County, Clifford Eagle did not sign documents that would have made his extradition from Montana a quick and easy process.
Danita Williams, an assistant district attorney in Haskell County, said she wasn’t sure why Eagle decided not to waive extradition proceedings after confessing to the slaying of Leo Boyd Reasnor, who was 49, nearly a quarter century ago.
Reasnor was a well-known county commissioner at the time of his death. Eagle, who implicated a second man in Reasnor’s shooting death, was a resident of Haskell County in 1987.
“I was a little surprised by that ... that he didn’t waive extradition,” Williams said. “But he may not have realized what all it meant, his confession. He may not have realized exactly what he was getting into at that point.”
Williams said her office has requested the assistance of Gov. Mary Fallin’s office to extradite Eagle.
Fallin spokesman Aaron Cooper said the governor’s office received an application from Haskell County for a so-called governor’s warrant Thursday. He said the application is pending, and “an extradition requisition has not been issued at this time.”
Haskell County District Attorney Farley Ward said last week at a news conference in Stigler that it’s too soon to know whether Eagle will face the death penalty if convicted.
Eagle was charged last week with murder, according to court documents. He is being held as a fugitive from justice at the Yellowstone County Detention Facility in Billings, Mont., according to the jail’s website.
What he told police
Eagle, 53, walked into a police station in Billings roughly two weeks ago and told detectives he wanted to get “something off his chest,” court records show.
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