After months of hunting and months of sitting in a Mexican Jail cell, Marine Corporal Cesar Laurean will be extradited back to the United States tomorrow, 18 April. Many of you will remember my coverage back when the story of Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach’s disappearance and discovery of her body in Laurean’s backyard first broke. Laurean fled to Mexico to avoid capture and charges.

Laurean while being held in Mexico after capture. Credit: AP

Lauterbach’s family must be relieved her accused killer is finally being returned to the United States for trial. My sincerest condolences go out to her family and the Marines she worked with. You may remember I worked with Laurean prior to reenlisting and changing jobs. I never worked with Lauterbach, but knew of her since I still dealt with the admin sections where they worked.

District Attorney Dewey Hudson agreed not to seek the death penalty in return for Mexico returning Laurean. I want Laurean to go to trial for what he is accused of doing, and I also believe the death penalty shouldn’t have been taken off the table. If Laurean is found guilty, which I believe he will be, I want him to die. The killing of a young woman and her unborn child is disgusting. He himself is a father, how would he feel if someone brutally murdered his child and them set them on fire to cover the crime?

There will be a lot more to come in this case and I fully intend on covering it. Stayed tuned for more.

Update: I was asked a question over email that I want to put here as well.

Will he be tried as a civilian? If so, the papers and TV idiots will have a field day crucifying a “vicious Marine”, trained to kill.

My answer:

Yeah, he’ll be tried in civilian court. Since the crime happened at his home off base, the military can’t bring him up on charges. They don’t have jurisdiction for a court martial on a murder if it happens off base. However, they can administratively separate him for commission of a serious offense.

Another Marine I worked with while an admin bubba was separated due to commission of a serious offense. He was on leave driving to Chicago and shot an AR-15 at another car in a fit of road rage. Unknown to the people in both cars, the two people that were shot at were UA Marines from Quantico. The guy I worked with served some time in an Illinois jail if I remember correctly and was kicked out of the Marine Corps.