Yorky Pud

Back in November 2009 we brought you the breaking news of professional poker player Marcus Bebb-Jones being arrested at his Kidderminster home and being accused of murdering his American wife, Sabrina, in Colorado 12 years previously. Now we can inform you that his appeal against being extradited to the United States of America to face these charges has been dismissed by the High Court and he will be extradited to the US, where he will face a trial for murder in the first degree, concealing death and domestic violence.

Bebb-Jones lived in the US for eight years before returning to the UK a year after his wife disappeared. He told police officers that his wife had walked out on him after a fight they had in the Dinosaur National Monument park in north-west Colorado on 16 September 1997. The following day he flew, with his then three year old son Daniel, to Las Vegas where his wife's family lives in order to search for her.

Four days later Daniel was found alone in a hotel room and taken into state care and the following day Bebb-Jones was found in another hotel room suffering from what investigating officers described as a “self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.” Further investigation revealed Bebb-Jones had run up charges of $5,700 during his five day “Playboy weekend” and had a further $7,000 of charges refused, some of which he used his missing wife's credit cards to fund.

Despite finding Sabrina's blood in the family car, Bebb-Jones faced no official charge and returned to the UK with his son in 1998. Then in 2004, a rancher discovered a skull near Douglas Pass, which is in between the Dinosaur National Monument and Grand Junction, which later turned out to be the skull of the missing Sabrina Bebb-Jones. A further five years of investigations took place and eventually a warrant for the arrest of Mr Bebb-Jones was issued.

Upon his arrest, Bebb-Jones, who has live tournament winnings of $242,569, was remanded in custody due to his ability to obtain cash at short notice and was therefore a risk of absconding. US officials have been fighting to have the well-liked poker player extradited to the US to face trial but it looked as if their quest had failed but on Friday 28 January the High Court dismissed his appeal and he will now be extradited to face trial in the US.

Under US law the maximum punishment Bebb-Jones could face is lifetime imprisonment with no chance of parole, so he will die behind bars, or the death penalty, which is still active in Colorado. However, under agreements draw up between the US and the UK, the death penalty is quite unlikely.