UPDATE: Summerfield will return to Dare to face charges tonight or tomorrow

Nathan Summerfield will be returned to Dare County by Sheriff’s Office deputies late tonight or early tomorrow morning to face charges of first-degree murder, according to an afternoon news release from Dare’s chief deputy Steve Hoggard.

The exact time and location of the return is not being released because of security considerations. 

Summerfield, 27, of Ashland, Ohio, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of his former girlfriend, Lynn Jackenheimer, 33, also of Ashland, sometime around July 4 while the couple was vacationing in Salvo on Hatteras Island with her two children.

The suspect had a first court appearance this morning in Medina County, Ohio, where he was apprehended Wednesday after a month-long nationwide manhunt.

The hotel where he was arrested is about 30 miles from Ashland.  He had checked in the day before under a fictitious name and had grown a beard since he was last seen.

In that appearance, he waived his rights and agreed to be extradited to North Carolina.

Hoggard said that once Summerfield is returned, he will be served with a murder warrant and taken before a judicial official for the purpose of setting bond.

“Typically, bond is denied in these cases, but the ultimate decision is with the court system,” Hoggard said in the release.

Jackenheimer was last heard from July 3 during the Salvo vacation.  Summerfield returned to Ohio on July 8, dropped the children with their grandparents, and disappeared.

Jackenheimer’s body was found July 14 on a deserted cul-de-sac in Frisco.  According to an autopsy, she died of strangulation and stab wounds.

District Attorney Frank Parrish said in a telephone interview today that Summerfield is expected to make his first appearance in Dare County District Court on Tuesday, Aug. 21, when the judge will ask if he has retained counsel, and if necessary, appoint an attorney to represent him.

Parrish said it is likely that the judge will hold him without bond at the Dare County Detention Center, where he will be jailed when returned from Ohio.

The matter will next go to a Dare County Grand Jury, which will be asked to formally indict Summerfield on the first-degree murder charge.

After that, the wheels of justice slow down considerably, and Parrish said that “it’s inordinately difficult” to say exactly when a murder trial will happen. 

The most recent second-degree murder trial of James Eric Presson in Dare County Superior Court took two years after the crime to be tried.

 “It’s very much a nuanced process,” he said. “It’s not a case of backlog; it’s how quickly we can move it through.”

Before the prosecution can determine whether the case is a capital murder case –warranting a death sentence — they must review whether a strict list of 11 aggravating circumstances has been met, Parrish said. For example: Was the crime heinous, atrocious or cruel? Did the victim suffer or beg for mercy?

In that context, Parrish said, cold as it sounds, the law looks less harsh on a “clean kill” that is inflicted quickly.

If the district attorney believes the crime meets the standard of a capital case, a Rule 24 hearing will be held in front of a Superior Court judge. A defendant in a capital case must be represented by two attorneys.

Whatever the judge’s ruling, the process of discovery begins when the prosecution submits the evidence to the defense, motions are filed, hearings are held, and a judge makes rulings. That cycle is often repeated several times before a case is ready to put on the court calendar. 

 “It’s hard to predict with precision the timeline of those events,” Parrish said. 

Chief Assistant District Attorney Nancy Lamb, who has more than 27 years of experience in the DA’s office, will be prosecuting the case, Parrish said.

Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/oh_ashland/Summerfield-waives-rights-will-return-to-North-Carolina#ixzz23q6BhONn