Costa Rica nabs Ky. slaying suspect
Return to Kentucky could take months
By James Malone
jmalone@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050504/NEWS0104/505040460/1008/NEWS01
A Kentucky man on the FBI's list of most wanted fugitives, charged with killing his elderly aunt and fleeing the country, was captured yesterday in Costa Rica, police said.
Russell Winstead, 40, of Madisonville, is wanted in the January 2003 murder and robbery of 86-year-old Anna Mae Branson, and on a charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Police said they believed Winstead had asked Branson for money before she was stabbed more than 80 times in the basement of her home.
Another Branson nephew, Tom Branson, said that, while law-enforcement agencies had not notified the family, he had received calls from people who had heard news of Winstead's arrest.
"We are all still numb over the whole matter," said Branson, a Madisonville minister. "I am not excited he was captured. I feel very, very sorry for him. We lived a block away from my aunt, and her memory is still very fresh."
The FBI has been told it could take from three to seven months to return Winstead to the United States, said David Beyer, a spokesman in Louisville.
Costa Rica will not extradite fugitives who face the death penalty, officials with its embassy said last year.
Kentucky State Police Trooper Stu Recke said Winstead will be held in a Costa Rican jail until the extradition.
Winstead was captured about two weeks after an FBI agent in Panama went to Costa Rica to work with police there on the case, Beyer said.
According to information the FBI received, Winstead -- using the alias Jeffrey Dan Fish -- was arrested about 1 a.m. playing cards in a casino in San Jose, Costa Rica's capital.
There was no information on whether Winstead resisted or that he was with anyone else at the time, Beyer said.
Police said Winstead, a civil engineer, hid in Costa Rica shortly after fleeing the United States in mid-2003, after he failed to show up for a hearing in the Hopkins County murder case.
Last year, authorities charged Winstead's father, Earl, with wiring money to his son in Costa Rica.
Earl Winstead received probation after pleading guilty to seven counts of hindering apprehension and prosecution.
Captured Kentuckian wouldn't be executed
Man is charged with killing aunt
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050505/NEWS0104/505050425/1008/NEWS01
By Bruce Schreiner
Associated Press
Russell Winstead spent two years eluding Kentucky authorities who wanted him in the slaying of his aunt, but his luck ran out at a casino in Costa Rica.
Winstead was arrested Tuesday in the Costa Rican capital of San Jose.
"It's a day we've been waiting for," said Hopkins Commonwealth's Attorney David Massamore, who expects to try Winstead on charges of murder and first-degree robbery.
Winstead, 40, fled in June 2003. A month later he was indicted in the death of 85-year-old Ann Branson, a Madisonville businesswoman. She was found beaten and stabbed in her basement in January 2003.
Massamore said yesterday that it is unlikely that he will be able to seek the death penalty because of Costa Rica's unwillingness to extradite suspects if death or life in prison without parole are sentencing options.
"Unless a miracle happens, the only way he can be extradited to the United States for trial on murder would require a waiver of those two options as punishment," Massamore said.
"And I have been told by the (U.S.) Secretary of State's office that if I did not do that, then he would be in Costa Rica forever. They wouldn't return him."
Massamore said he would like to seek the death penalty, but would agree to the Costa Rican officials' conditions in order to bring Winstead back. In such a case, Massamore said he would seek the toughest punishment still available -- life in prison without possibility of parole for 25 years.
Authorities said they were pleased with the arrest and had never lost hope. "We knew we would get him, it was just a matter of time," said Madisonville police Capt. Marc Boggs.
Winstead was arrested without incident Tuesday at the Horseshoe Casino in San Jose.
A tip from someone who watched a segment featuring Winstead on the television show "America's Most Wanted" led authorities to him, according to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the law-enforcement arm of the State Department.
Even with assurances that Winstead would not face the death penalty if convicted, the extradition process could take several months, the department said.
Winstead fled Kentucky a month before his July 2003 indictment by a Hopkins County grand jury. "The timing would indicate that he may well have learned or suspected that the evidence we were waiting for was about to be received and he left about that time," Massamore said.
Authorities had suspected for some time that Winstead had wound up in Costa Rica.
Branson owned rental property and once owned the local Dairy Queen.
Kentucky State Police Trooper Stu Recke, a spokesman for the Madisonville post, said Branson's records showed that Winstead owed her thousands of dollars. Winstead apparently borrowed the money to feed his gambling habit, Recke said.