Oregon man extradited to O.C. for 1990 stabbing death

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An Oregon man facing murder charges for the 1990 stabbing death of his roommate was extradited Wednesday to Orange County, law enforcement officials said.

Charles Lee Clark, 74, has been charged with one felony count of murder. He was brought back from Beavercreek, Ore., where he had been living, according to a joint statement from the Orange County district attorney’s office and the Tustin Police Department.

Clark is being held on $5-million bail and his arraignment has not yet been scheduled, authorities said.

Clark was previously convicted for robbery in 1975 and in 1990, prosecutors said.

In 1990, while out on bail for a federal bank robbery, prosecutors said Clark is accused of renting a room in Kathleen Witkowski’s Tustin apartment. Prosecutors said Clark, then 52, had been arguing with Witkowski about using her car. On Nov. 18, 1990, prosecutors allege that Clark fatally stabbed Witknowski, 38. Her body was found several days later by Tustin police.

Prosecutors said Clark fled to Las Vegas in Witkowski’s car, where police found it in early 1991.

A decade later, in 2011, Tustin police submitted items from the crime scene to the Orange County Crime Lab for analysis. A DNA sample linked Clark to the murder, reopening the investigation, authorities said.

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-- Rick Rojas