Georgia Woman Extradited for Pasco Murder Charges

Amanda Logue of Leesburg, Georgia was extradited from that state to Florida this week. She now faces a first-degree murder charge in Pasco County for allegedly killing a Hudson tattoo shop owner.

Logue is being held at the Land O’ Lakes Jail without bail. She was arrested in Georgia on May 28.

According to Pasco County sheriff’s detectives, Logue bludgeoned and stabbed Dennis “Scooter” Abrahamsen to death last month. They say that Logue is a prostitute who participated in a sex party at Abrahamsen’s home in New Port Richey on May 15.

Abrahamsen’s body was found face down on a massage table at his home the next day. His skull was caved in and he had been been stabbed in the back. About $6, 000, a laptop computer, a video camera, a digital camera and a Home Depot credit card were missing from his home.

According to the sheriff’s office, Logue told a detective that her boyfriend, Jason Andrews, killed Abrahamsen. Andrews, in fact, was arrested in Largo on a retail theft charge several days after Abrahamsen’s death and had Abrahamsen’s Home Depot card with him at the time. Andrews has not been charged in conjunction with Abrahamsen’s death.

Investigators obtained a search warrant and reviewed text messages between two Blackberrys allegedly used by Andrews and Logue the night of the murder. They believe that those messages reveal that Andrews and Logue planned to kill Abrahamsen and steal money from his home.

It appears that Logue waived her right to challenge the extradition from Georgia to Florida – because she returned to Pasco County very quickly after her arrest in Georgia. Extradition is a legal process one state surrenders a suspected (or convicted) criminal to another state for prosecution, sentencing or incarceration.

If the fugitive does not agree to be extradited, the process is governed by federal law. In this case, the governor of Florida would have to officially demand Logue’s return from Georgia to stand trial, including a copy of the indictment or affidavit. Involving the governor’s offices adds some time to the process. After the fugitive is arrested, the requesting jurisdiction (Florida) then has 30 days to appear in Georgia to receive the fugitive.

The extradition process also generally allows the fugitive to present a defense – not to the crime charged, but that the person sought by the requesting state is not the person who has been arrested. This mistaken identity defense to extradition would not, again, be an argument that the charging authorities mistook the arrestee for the murderer but that the arresting jurisdiction mistook the arrestee for the actual fugitive.