Suspect in killing of NC police chief’s daughter waives extradition from NY, will return to NC

Suspect in woman’s slaying to return to NC from NY

LOCKPORT, N.Y. — The man accused of killing a North Carolina police chief’s daughter and dumping her body in a self-storage unit waived extradition from New York on Tuesday, the day of the slain woman’s funeral.

In a five-minute hearing Tuesday, a subdued Michael Neal Harvey said he would not fight extradition and would return to the Charlotte, N.C., area.

Harvey, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit and handcuffs, was sent to the Niagara County Jail to await transfer. It was not immediately known when he would be extradited, but North Carolina authorities are already in New York.

Police say Harvey killed 23-year-old Valerie Hamilton last week and dumped her body before fleeing to Niagara Falls, where he grew up.

Four family members were with the 34-year-old Harvey in court, where his mother broke into tears. Neither his family nor his attorney, Michael White, spoke to reporters as they left the courtroom.

In court documents, Harvey told authorities he was adopted by his grandparents at the age of 3 because his mother abused drugs. He earned his high school equivalency diploma in 1993 at Moriah Shock Boot Camp in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, a facility for young offenders.

A team of state, local and federal officers arrested Harvey on Monday at a Niagara Falls home. Niagara County District Attorney Michael Violante said authorities do not plan to press charges against anyone who knew Harvey was in town.

Harvey had been wanted on a murder warrant after Hamilton’s body was found Saturday. She was the daughter of Concord, N.C., police Chief Merl Hamilton, who described her as “perfect.” Her funeral was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

Harvey told authorities he first drank alcohol at age 7. At age 12, he began smoking marijuana, which he would smoke daily until he was 28, he said. He tried cocaine for the first time at 13 and used amphetamines and hallucinogens in his teens, though he says he stopped using those years ago. He advanced to heroin at 18 and first smoked crack at age 30, according to a January 2008 pre-sentencing report for violating his probation.

In 1996, he was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse in New York and was on probation in North Carolina after his 2006 conviction on charges that he failed to register as a sex offender.

At the time of the 2008 pre-sentencing report, he had been homeless for a year and admitted using heroin several times since leaving drug rehab. He was sentenced to three years of supervised probation and the judge recommended he live in a halfway house, though he was assessed as having a medium-to-high risk of re-offending.

His mother, Rose Harvey, told authorities he was a “great student, very smart, but often got bored in school.” In January 2008, she described her son, the father of a young daughter who lives with her mother, as a “passionate, caring, family man.”

In June 2009, he was convicted of felony breaking and entering — for stealing golf clubs, power tools and other property the year before — and received a suspended sentence.

This year, he was indicted on three charges from the Charlotte metro area — possession of a firearm by a felon, possession with intent to sell heroin and possession of drug paraphernalia, specifically needles and baggies.

Associated Press Writer Seanna Adcox contributed to this report from Charlotte, N.C.

(This version corrects the name of the 1996 charge to first-degree sexual abuse.)