UW-Madison junior Meng-Ju \Mark"" Wu remained in detention at Rikers Island corrections facility in New York Thursday after his extradition hearing was pushed back a second time to Oct. 6.
The Dane County district attorney's office has charged Wu with three counts of first degree intentional homicide for allegedly shooting three men in Verona June 26. According to the criminal complaint, one of the victims established an offshore gambling account for Wu, who has lost tens of thousands of dollars in gambling bets.
He stands accused of killing Jason McGuigan, 28, Dustin Wilson, 17, and Daniel Swanson, 25. Investigators found a holster for a 9 mm handgun belonging to McGuigan and a shoe with one of the victims' blood on it in a dumpster near Wu's apartment.
Police arrested Wu as a material witness in New York July 6 and brought him back to Wisconsin.
He was then sent back to New York because prosecutors did not have enough evidence to arrest him as a suspect.
As of Thursday, the necessary paperwork needed to bring Wu back to Wisconsin to stand trial had not gone through the system, according to Gretchen Hayward, the assistant district attorney in charge of the case.
""You have to go through an extradition process which the states have agreed on, and it starts when our governor's extradition warrant goes to New York,"" Hayward said. ""And the New York governor then issues one which goes to the court in New York and then they rule on it.""
Hayward said the new Oct. 6 hearing date is tentative.
""I think once they get the New York governor's warrant [the courts] could very well set an earlier date,"" she said.
A spokesperson for New York Gov. George Pataki said he was unaware of the case and unaware that the governor had issued a warrant yet.
Wu's attorney Charles Abercrombie said Wu is not upset that the hearing has been pushed back. Wu has visiting privileges in jail and is in contact with his family.
""He seems quite well, in fact,"" Abercrombie said. ""[We're] waiting for the New York governor to issue a warrant.""
Wu, a resident alien from Taiwan, studied Chinese at UW-Madison.
