CANCUN, Mexico (AP) — A reality televison producer arrived in Mexico escorted by nearly a dozen agents on Thursday after being extradited from the United States so he can face trial in his wife's killing.
Former "Survivor" producer Bruce Beresford-Redman landed at Cancun's airport and was whisked away in an SUV accompanied by three police vehicles. The noncommercial jet touched down on a separate runway where reporters didn't have access.
Minutes after landing, agents drove the producer to the state prosecutors' office, which is charging him in the death of his wife whose body was found in a sewer cistern at a swank Cancun resort following an April 2010 family vacation.
Gaspar Armando Garcia Torres, attorney general for the state of Quintana Roo, said the suspect will be taken to a jail in the Caribbean resort. The producer could see a judge anytime within the next three days.
Reporters couldn't approach Bruce Beresford-Redman. From afar, the producer could be seen handcuffed wearing a white T-shirt and a bulletproof vest.
The legal saga of Beresford-Redman has played out on both sides of the border.
The U.S. Marshals Service turned the Emmy-nominated producer over to Mexican federal police Wednesday, roughly two weeks after State Department officials signed a warrant clearing his extradition.
The producer and his wife Monica Beresford-Redman had gone to the resort with their young children in an attempt to save their marriage after she learned her husband was cheating on her.
Bruce Beresford-Redman opted in December not to appeal a U.S. court ruling upholding his extradition.
"Bruce eagerly wants to set the record straight, confront the charges in a fair trial and return to his children," spokesman Stephen Jaffe wrote in an email.
Beresford-Redman has denied that he killed his wife and his attorneys have attacked evidence in the case.
His U.S. attorneys fought his return to Mexico, but two federal judges ruled there was ample reason to send him abroad for trial.
Garcia Torres told The Associated Press the prosecution has gathered strong evidence in the case. A judge has yet to see the suspect and decide when he will be tried.
Beresford-Redman has employed attorneys in Mexico to challenge the validity of the case there. The lawyers couldn't be reached Thursday.
Beresford-Redman was arrested on a fugitive warrant in the Los Angeles area in November 2010. Mexican and U.S. authorities say he left Mexico without permission, although Beresford-Redman's lawyers have claimed he was under no obligation to stay and needed to return to the U.S. to help care for his children.
The family of Monica Beresford-Redman said the extradition "marks a major milestone in our journey to ensure justice for Monica."
"After nearly 15 months in United States custody, Bruce will finally be returned to Mexico to stand trial for Monica's murder," attorney Alison Triessl wrote in a statement released on behalf of the family.
Triessl said the family will follow the case in Mexico and will ask for the maximum sentence if Beresford-Redman is convicted. The maximum sentence could be 12 to 30 years in prison.
"He has always stated that he is innocent of the charges against him and it is his hope that the court in Cancun will assure that he receives a fair trial in which, he is confident, he will be exonerated," Beresford-Redman's attorney, Richard Hirsch wrote in a statement.
U.S. prosecutors presented statements from hotel guests who said they heard loud arguing and cries of distress coming from the couple's room on the night Monica Beresford-Redman went missing.
The producer's attorneys have claimed the noises came from Beresford-Redman and his children playing loud games throughout the night and that there isn't any forensic evidence that he killed his wife.
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AP Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this report from Los Angeles.
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