By  Seamus McGraw

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Burt waives extradition, could face death penalty in Illinois

Evidence collected at the scene indicated that the girl was killed at the Illinois location where she was found, authorities told Crime Library. The next day, Waterloo police arrested Burt. Already considered a material witness to the slaying, Burt, who has a history of arrests, and spent four years in prison for a 1996 cocaine conviction, was charged in Illinois with first-degree murder.

In that the crime may have spanned two states, Donnisha's slaying echoes the 2003 murder of Dru Sjodin, the 22-year-old University of North Dakota co-ed who was abducted from a North Dakota shopping mall in 2003, taken across the state line to Minnesota and murdered. Alfonso Rodriguez, a 53-year-old sex offender, was convicted in federal court of killing her and was sentenced to death earlier this year. (See related story: http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/classics/dru_sjodin/1_index.html)

In the Dru Sjodin case, federal authorities were able to intervene because the crime crossed state lines. That gave the feds the authority to seek the death penalty despite the fact that neither North Dakota nor Minnesota permit capital punishment. That, however, is not likely to be the case in Donnisha's slaying. While Iowa does not have a death penalty statute, Illinois, where authorities allege the murder occurred, does. Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to seek it in this case.

On Tuesday, Burt waived extradition and was sent from the Black Hawk County Jail in Waterloo to Illinois, where he is being held in a single cell separated from the general jail population. A bail hearing could come as early as today.

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