Shooting suspect to return to Kansas

Gardner resident faces murder charge for acquaintance's slaying

The man accused of a deadly weekend shooting at a birthday party in Baldwin won’t fight prosecutors’ attempt to bring him back from Oklahoma to face charges.

Hinndley Espinales, 25, Gardner, appeared before Judge Tim Colbert in Murray County District Court in Sulphur, Okla., and signed an order of extradition, officials there said. If he had fought the extradition, prosecutors here would have had to go through the process of seeking a governor’s warrant and sending it to the Oklahoma governor’s office.

Espinales is expected to be brought back to Kansas in the coming days by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. As of Monday, he was being held without bond in the Murray County jail.

Also on Monday, Dist. Atty. Charles Branson’s office formally charged Espinales with first-degree murder.

He’s suspected of shooting an acquaintance, Alvin M. Sanchez, 27, Olathe, early Saturday morning after an alcohol-fueled dispute at a birthday party in the 100 block of Hillside Drive in Baldwin.

Baldwin Police Chief Mike McKenna said Sanchez was shot at least once in the head and several times in the body with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun around 2:15 a.m. after a fight that focused on Sanchez’s wife. McKenna said Espinales was at the party with friends.

The home where the shooting happened is the home of Espinales’ father, Rufino Espinales, police said.