AnonymousSource: Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office
RE: People v. WEI MIAO; 1991 Case #917258
Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce E. Dudley announced [Saturday] that Mr. Wei Miao, 62, was extradited from the United Kingdom and booked into the Santa Barbara County Jail in connection with the 1991 death of Mr. Chung Yu Ping. Mr. Ping’s body was found in a culvert off Highway 1 in Las Cruces, CA, on June 9, 1991. The felony complaint and arrest warrant, both filed on June 28, 1991, charge Mr. Miao with murder in violation of Penal Code section 187. It is also alleged the defendant personally used a dangerous and deadly weapon, a hammer, within the meaning of Penal Code section 12022(b). Sheriff Detectives were unable to locate Miao and believed he fled the country in mid-June 1991.
Beginning in 2012, based on information developed by the FBI that Miao might be residing in London, the District Attorney’s Office began the process of requesting the arrest and extradition of Mr. Miao from the United Kingdom. On August 20, 2015, Wei Miao was located and arrested in London by UK law enforcement authorities. After protracted court proceedings, his extradition was ordered by the UK High Court on July 1, 2020.
Throughout this process the District Attorney’s Office received significant assistance from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Los Angeles Field Office, the US Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, the Crown Prosecution Service’s Extradition Unit, the London Metropolitan Police Service, and the US Marshall’s Service.
Mr. Miao was booked into the County Jail by District Attorney Investigators and is being held on $2,000,000 bail. Arraignment is expected to occur on August 31, 2020, in Superior Court Department 9, Santa Maria.
