Shootout Suspect Chevie Kehoe Fights Move Ohio Governor Would Have To Issue Warrant For Extradition From Utah

Chevie Kehoe, a captured Ohio fugitive charged in two police shootouts and sought for questioning in an Arkansas triple murder, refused Thursday to be returned to Ohio without a fight.

It will be at least a month before a judge considers a warrant from Ohio’s governor to extradite Kehoe against his will.

Kehoe, 24, was arraigned as a fugitive from justice by 3rd District Court Judge Sheila McCleve on Thursday and is being held on $1 million bail at the Salt Lake County Jail.

That’s the same bail holding his brother, Cheyne Kehoe, 21, in a Spokane jail on charges stemming from two shootouts with police in Wilmington, Ohio, on Feb. 15. One of the shootouts was videotaped and broadcast nationally.

McCleve ordered that an attorney be appointed for Chevie Kehoe and set a July 21 hearing to review the case. Kehoe, wearing a brown jail jumpsuit, appeared before McCleve via a video camera from the jail. He made no comment.

Bud Ellett, assistant Salt Lake County prosecutor, said the Ohio governor and the Utah governor must sign the warrant seeking Kehoe’s extradition. Once it is served, Kehoe could challenge it.

“He’s there (in jail) until at least July 21,” Ellett said.

Meanwhile, Arkansas and federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms investigators are in Salt Lake and southwestern Utah to question Chevie Kehoe and search for evidence in the slayings of a Tilly, Ark., arms dealer, his wife and her daughter.

Kehoe was arrested outside a Cedar City feed store Tuesday after his brother turned himself in Monday at their hometown of Colville, Wash., and told authorities where the brothers and their families had been living.

After turning himself in, Cheyne Kehoe told about the arms they had in the borrowed trailer where they were living outside Beryl, about 50 miles west of Cedar City, which is 220 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

FBI Special Agent Thomas T. Kubic said agents found three assault rifles that had been converted to fully automatic and 8,000 rounds of armor-piercing ammunition. There also was a shotgun that had been extended to hold a greater load, 20 rounds of .50-caliber ammunition and bulletproof vests., a modified shotgun, ammunition and bulletproof vests.

Kubic said the ATF would help inventory the weapons, looking for a connection to the slaying of gun dealer William Mueller.

Chevie Kehoe faces three federal firearms charges in Spokane, two of which allege he possessed guns that had been stolen from Mueller.

Mueller, 52; his wife, Nancy, 28; and her daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Powell, 8, disappeared in January 1996. Their decomposed bodies were dredged from the Illinois Bayou near Russellville, Ark., the following June.