Christian Longo discarded a potentially life-saving trump card when he agreed to return to the United States from Mexico without a fight.
Instead, he faces the possibility of execution by lethal injection in Oregon, where he had his first court proceeding Wednesday in the deaths of his wife and three children.
Longo asked for a court-appointed attorney during the proceeding, where he spoke via video link from the jail in Lincoln County.
He is being held in lieu of a $2.5-million bond.
Prosecutors will present evidence to a grand jury sometime next week. That panel will determine if Longo will stand trial on charges he killed his wife, MaryJane Longo, 34, and children Zachary, 4, Sadie, 3, and Madison, 2. Their bodies were recovered from Pacific Ocean inlets last month.
Longo’s attorney, Kenneth Hadley, said he anticipates Longo will plead not guilty at his next court appearance Jan. 23.
District Attorney Bernice Barnett will not say whether she will seek the death penalty for Longo, who lived in Ypsilanti until falling into debt and moving to Toledo and then Oregon last year. If convicted of the slayings, he could be the state’s 26th inmate waiting execution.
“As an elected official, there has to be a lot of pressure to do that,” said Mike Ford, a Eugene, Ore., defense attorney who has handled six death penalty defenses.
Longo would still be in Mexico had he decided to fight extradition rather than voluntarily return with FBI agents who tracked him down in the resort town of Tulum on Sunday. The extradition process could have taken months or even years.
What’s more, Mexican officials might have refused to return him if it was clear that Longo would face the death penalty.
“Mexico does not extradite if the penalty they will face is the death penalty,” said Miguel Monterrubio, press secretary with the Mexican Embassy in Washington D.C. “Our constitution forbids it.”
Oregon attorney Kevin Hunt said Longo’s lawyers may still be able to argue that his voluntary return to the United States was coerced or illegal if it can be proved he was never informed of his right to contact the U.S. Consulate in Mexico.
The prospect of a high-profile Oregon murder trial will add fuel to the debate over repealing the state’s death penalty law — a measure which is expected to land on November’s ballot.
“The timing of this case is going to have to be dealt with by proponents of the initiative,” Hunt said. “It’s bad timing for them.”