Deal delayed to return man wanted in slaying
Gardens man who fled after 2016 shooting is in Northern Ireland jail.
Jonah Horne, one of two men charged in a 2016 Boca Raton slaying, will stay in jail in Northern Ireland at least for another month.
The Palm Beach Gardens man, now 22, was the subject of an extradition hearing Friday that will finish in mid-November, courts in Northern Ireland confirmed.
Lawyers for Horne in Northern Ireland have cited a United Kingdom-U.S. treaty ratified in 2007 that says British courts “may refuse extradition unless the Requesting State provides an assurance that the death penalty will not be imposed or, if imposed, will not be carried out.”
It might not be an issue. Boca Raton police said in March they would charge the two with second-degree murder, which could mean life sentences but precludes the death penalty.
Of 195 nations surveyed worldwide, the United States is one of about 25 that still carry out executions, according to the Cornell University Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide. Most are in either the Middle East or Asia.
Boca Raton police allege Horne and Matthew Lewis, now 24, of Jensen Beach, fatally shot Jacob Walsh, 25, of Jupiter, on June 7, 2016, in a struggle during a drug deal at the San Marco at Broken Sound apartment complex at Military Trail and Yamato Road. Lewis is in the Palm Beach County Jail.
Another lawyer for Horne said in March in a Belfast court that Horne fled across the ocean for love, not to escape justice. A lawyer representing U.S. interests challenged that.
The Belfast Telegraph reported authorities detained Horne on March 13 in nearby Lisburn at the home of a woman he’d met while she was working in America and who was pregnant with their child. He has been housed in Maghaberry Prison.