ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Channel 9 has learned that Canada extradited a murder suspect to central Florida but only after prosecutors agreed to not go after the death penalty in the case.
Investigators said Francis Fowler was 16 when he helped kill his friend's uncle, Morgan Willis, and dumped the body in an orange grove.
Willis' sister, Wanda Willis, said she will never forgive her son, Jerry Henry, who has already been convicted in the case.
Authorities said Morgan Willis was brutally murdered in 2007 and buried near a house in Belle Isle.
"It's been horrifying that my only little brother is gone," said Wanda Willis.
Fowler fled to Canada, but Henry was arrested and then convicted of killing his uncle.
"My son got 44 years," said Wanda Willis.
Henry's friend, James Hollriegel, is also serving a prison sentence for the crime, but Fowler only faced charges as of this weekend, authorities said.
"The Canadians said they would extradite him only because the death penalty is off the table," said Wanda Willis.
The 22-year-old Fowler is Canadian-born, and courts there had refused to relinquish custody until Florida promised not to give him the death penalty if convicted.
Neighbors said they knew all along Fowler fled to his home country after the murder.
"He was only 16 years at the time," said neighbor Steve Mitchell. "He swears he had nothing to do with it, says he was at the wrong place at the wrong time."
"They will hold up the extradition until they get a guarantee the U.S. will not impose a death sentence," said WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer.
Florida's juvenile laws differ from Canada's. In Canada, if Fowler was to be convicted of second-degree murder as a juvenile, he'd face seven years in prison. In Florida, it's a life sentence.