Cold case suspect back in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — A man charged in connection with a 1994 cold case murder in West Jordan has been extradited from a federal prison in Atlanta to the Salt Lake County Jail to face charges here.

Jose Levya-Padilla, 38, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail Friday on a warrant for homicide and aggravated murder.

Richard Leetham, 35, was shot to death in 1994. His body was found near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon near an abandoned cement plant about a month after he went missing. About a month after that, Leetham's pickup truck was found in Tijuana, Mexico.

Levya-Padilla was being held in a federal prison in Atlanta for aggravated re-entry into the United States when Unified Police Lt. Todd Parks was able to file charges after reopening the case in 2008 and conducting new interviews and gathering new evidence.

Levya-Padilla still had time left on his sentence in federal prison, and was scheduled to be deported after completing that sentence before the Salt Lake District Attorney's Office filed papers to have him stand trial in Utah.

If convicted, he faces up to life in prison in Utah. If the case in Utah should fall through, Levya-Padilla could still be sent back to federal prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and be deported.