The Florida man accused of strangling 86-year-old Leo Corriveau last month in Presque Isle has declined to challenge extradition and is set to return to Maine, according to a law enforcement representative in Florida.
At a hearing Tuesday at the Pinellas County Justice Center, 80-year-old Robert Craig of Clearwater, Florida, waived extradition and “should be on his way to Maine” in the near future, said Steve Thompson, public information officer with the Sixth Circuit Court of Florida.
Craig strangled Corriveau on July 21 in Presque Isle and fled with Corriveau’s car to Hermon, where Craig caught a bus back to Florida, according to an affidavit filed in Presque Isle District Court on July 29.
Craig and Corriveau were neighbors for four years at the Japanese Garden Home Park in Clearwater, where Corriveau spent his winters, and they came to Maine together to stay at Corriveau’s Presque Isle home on July 12, according to the affidavit. Corriveau was found dead facedown in his backyard by relatives on Saturday, July 23, and police investigators discovered physical evidence in Corriveau’s home and car, according to the affidavit.
Craig was arrested Thursday, July 28, near his home in Clearwater and has been held in Pinellas County Jail on a fugitive from justice charge pending his return to Maine, where he will face a murder charge, according to Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland.
Craig’s first court appearance in Maine has not been scheduled, according to Timothy Feeley, spokesman for the Maine attorney general’s office.
A representative for the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, which is helping facilitate the extradition, said Tuesday that the department does not share information regarding an inmate’s extradition.