Officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s (PSNI's) International Policing Unit, working in partnership with US authorities and the US Marshall Services, extradited a 29-year-old man to the US from Northern Ireland on Thursday, March 28.
The man is wanted to stand trial for murder, the PSNI said in a statement on Thursday.
Detective Inspector Lennon from the International Policing Unit said “The Police Service of Northern Ireland continues to work with our international partners and will use all means available to ensure offenders are brought to justice. If fugitives travel to Northern Ireland to avoid the consequences of their previous crimes it is only a matter of time before they are arrested and brought before the Extradition Courts.
“Our message is clear that we will relentlessly pursue those that are trying to delay or deny justice to victims of crime.”
A PSNI spokesperson subsequently told IrishCentral that the extradition “relates to a fatal shooting of a man in Florida in 2016.”
In March 2017, detectives from the Boca Raton Police Services Department announced that they had developed charges in connection with the June 2016 murder of Jacob Walsh.
"Investigators concluded Walsh was involved in a suspected drug transaction with Matthew Lewis and Jonah Horne when he was shot," Boca Raton PD said at the time.
"Detectives charged Lewis, who is in prison in northern Florida on unrelated charges, with Second Degree Murder with a Firearm.
"Horne was located in Northern Ireland and is being detained pending extradition."
According to The Belfast Telegraph, Horne was arrested on March 13, 2017, at his partner's home in Lisburn in Northern Ireland. Judge Patricia Smyth heard at Laganside Courts in Belfast heard that Horne had arrived in Northern Ireland the previous October. Horne's lawyers confirmed that he would not be consenting to extradition.
Horne has been in custody at the high-security Maghaberry Prison in Northern Ireland ever since and has mounted several appeals against his extradition.
For Horne's final appeal, Barrister Ben Keith argued in an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) that Horne’s extradition should not be allowed on the grounds that he was likely to receive a sentence of life without parole upon conviction in the US. Whole life sentences are in breach of Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The ECtHR refused the arguments and held that there was no “real risk” of Horne receiving life without parole upon conviction, based on assurances provided by the US Prosecutor that they would not seek a whole life sentence of more than 40 years imprisonment.
IrishCentral reached out to Keith as well as the Office of the State Attorney for the 15th Judicial Circuit in Florida for comment on Thursday.
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