2 12-02-88 04:22 pes Krishna killer taken to California MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. (UPI) _ Califor

     2  12-02-88 04:22 pes
 
 Krishna killer taken to California
   MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. (UPI) _ California officials have taken Hare
Krishna devotee Thomas Drescher to Los Angeles so he can be tried for
the murder of Krishna dissident Steven Bryant.
   John Massie, a records clerk at the West Virginia Penitentiary
confirmed that Drescher was escorted from the Moundsville prison
Thursday and flown to California where he was lodged in the Los Angeles
County Jail. Only a few of the prison's officials knew the three
plainsclothes detectives were taking Drescher out of the prison.
   "He left the institution with the clothes on his back and his
Krishna beads," Massie said.
   Since Jan. 14, 1987, Drescher has been serving a life prison term
without hope of parole in the West Virginia Penitentiary, following his
conviction for the murder of former Krishna devotee Charles St. Denis.
   Drescher has contended that he was not even in California on May
22, 1986, when Bryant was killed.
   The Hare Krishna follower who lived at New Vrindaban in Marshall
County began to fight his extradition in June 1987, after California
officials first sent papers to West Virginia corrections personnel
asking that Drescher be brought to the West to face murder charges in a
state that has the death penalty.
   On Tuesday, before Marshall County Circuit Judge Richard Warmuth,
Drescher exhausted his final plea to stop his extradition as the judge
approved his removal from the West Virginia Penitentiary.
   Drescher, in handcuffs and leg irons, was put on a 2 p.m. flight to
Los Angeles Thursday. A preliminary hearing will be held in California.
Because of court backlogs in Los Angeles County, the date has not been
set for the hearing.