The Winnipeg man who was caught in Florida last week after years on the run will go in front of a U.S. magistrate on Wednesday or Thursday on federal escape charges. He is now in the custody of U.S. Marshals in Miami, says Senior Inspector Barry Golden with the U.S. Marshals Office.
Ian Jackson MacDonald, a Canadian citizen, will be facing charges from both Canadian and American courts as well as what will likely be a lengthy and complicated extradition process, says Golden.
The American prosecutors have a solid case for the escape charges, Golden says. Jackson was tracked down by a deputy U.S. Marshal this month after he escaped prison in 1980 by faking a heart attack. He was sent to hospital, where he asked for restraints to be removed so he could shower and then fled, according to the marshals.
Once the escape charges are finalized, Golden said he expects the extradition process to bring Jackson to Canada will begin. However, whether Jackson will have to spend more time in a U.S. jail if he is convicted of the escape – before he is possibly extradited to Canada – is unknown at this point.
Golden said the deputy marshal who tracked Jackson down has spoken with Canadian authorities, and they confirmed the drug-related warrant that was initially issued for Jackson in 1979 is still active.
That deputy marshal was a member of a cold case squad tasked with searching for fugitives who had been on the run for more than 10 years. He noticed a handwritten note inside MacDonald's file that gave specific information about MacDonald's wife, which led him to discover the MacDonalds' aliases, marshals say.
For most of the 30 years, they were living in a rural home in southwest Pennsylvania calling themselves Jack and Angela Hunter. They returned to Florida in 2009 and were living under their new identities in a Homosassa, Florida home, where Jackson was arrested in January.
For more on the original charges against MacDonald and the impact of his arrest see this report from CTV's Stacey Ashley.
