ANNAPOLIS Md.
A suspect in the execution-style slayings of three college students in Newark, N.J., had an informal extradition hearing Thursday.
Rodolfo Godinez, 24, was arrested Aug. 18 in Oxon Hill. He’s one of six suspects in the Aug. 4 slayings of Terrance Aeriel, 18, Dashon Harvey, 20, and Iofemi Hightower, 20.
The victims were ordered to kneel in front of a wall behind an elementary school and shot in the back of the head in an apparent robbery. A fourth victim Aeriel’s 19-year-old sister, Natasha was shot in the head but survived.
Terrance and Natasha Aeriel were students at Delaware State University, and Hightower had planned to enroll there this fall.
Six people including Godinez’s 16-year-old half-brother have been charged in the slayings, and Godinez is the only one who has not been returned to New Jersey. He told a judge in Prince George’s County shortly after his arrest that he would fight extradition.
It’s unclear whether his effort to remain in Maryland is anything more than a stall tactic. Essentially, he can only argue that he’s not the man New Jersey authorities are looking for.