The Region : Suspects Fight Extradition

The alleged Domino’s Pizza killers began fighting extradition back to South Carolina by refusing in court to acknowledge that they were the suspects wanted in the December slayings of two restaurant employees in Hanahan, S.C. A Los Angeles Municipal judge set a Jan. 27 identity hearing for Mitchell Carlton Sims, 25, and Ruby Padgett, 20, who have already been arraigned in Glendale for a third murder, the Dec. 3 slaying of a Domino’s deliveryman in Glendale. The defendants’ attorneys said Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner’s decision this week to seek the defendants’ return to the southern state to face murder charges there first was “politically motivated.” Extradition, said defense counsel Joseph De Vanon, could result in “irreparable harm” to the defendants’ rights to a fair trial later in California. Meanwhile, in Sacramento, a spokesman said no decision had been reached by Gov. George Deukmejian on whether to extradite the two.