Extradition proceedings are waived

Randall Edward Connor, the man charged with first-degree murder in connection with the stabbing death of a Kent woman last year, has waived extradition proceedings in California and will be returned to Washington within the next two weeks, a King County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman said Friday.

Prosecutors will set an arraignment date for Connor at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent after they know exactly when he will be returned to Washington, said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office.

Connor, 28, who once lived in SeaTac, is in a California prison for a parole violation.

Last month prosecutors charged Connor with first-degree murder in connection with the death of Merianne Lorentson, 24, in her East Hill apartment.

Lorentson, a single mother of a then 5-year-old daughter, was found March 9, 2007 stabbed to death in her living room at an apartment in the 10400 block of Kent-Kangley Road.

Connor had dated Lorentson.

The U.S. Marshal’s Service, with assistance from the Kent Police, arrested Connor March 12, 2007 in Seattle on a California parole violation.

Over the past year, Kent detectives used DNA test results, cell-phone records and interviews with friends and relatives of Connor and Lorentson to build their case against Connor.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Connor faces between 23 to 28 years in prison.

Prosecutors said Connor served six years for armed robbery at Pelican Bay State Prison in California. Since his initial release in December 2004, Connor has been returned to California three times on parole violations.

At the time of Lorentson’s murder, Connor had been out of prison for a little more than two months and lived in SeaTac. Connor told police he started a relationship with Lorentson in 2005.