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Extradition delayed for suspect in grisly McHenry County murder

Despite governors in Illinois and Tennessee signing off on his return, a former Arlington Heights man charged in the gruesome slaying of a homeless man last year remains locked up in a Nashville-area prison awaiting extradition back to McHenry County.

Authorities expected Kyle W. Morgan back in Illinois within 30 days after a judge signed a court order March 11 clearing the way for his return to face murder charges.

More than two months later, however, Morgan, 25, still is incarcerated hundreds of miles away, caught up in what a county prosecutor described Friday as "some bureaucratic problems."

Morgan is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the January 2009 slaying of a 28-year-old man found brutally beaten and stabbed to death inside Morgan's Woodstock apartment. There also was evidence the body of victim Robin A. Burton had been mutilated.

After the murder, authorities said, Morgan - who dubbed himself "Thrill Kill Kyle" and expressed an interest in serial killers - fled the area and wound up in Nashville. The next day police spotted him and tried to pull him over, but Morgan sped away, driving his car on a downtown sidewalk and striking two pedestrians before colliding with a building and being arrested.

In January he pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the chase and was sentenced to five years in prison. At the time, however, Tennessee officials indicated they would release Morgan to Illinois as soon as extradition documents were complete.

That appears to have changed.

Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Michael Combs said "internal disciplinary issues" Morgan had while locked up in Tennessee may explain that state's reluctance to let him go.

But spokeswomen for both the Davidson County Sheriff and Davidson County District Attorney said Friday their offices are not delaying extradition.

Morgan's case is scheduled to be back in a McHenry County courtroom June 10.