The extradition of a Colorado Springs mother accused of killing her two children in December of 2023 has been approved by a judge in the United Kingdom. The ruling took place on a Friday morning, allowing her to return to the United States and face the charges against her.
Kimberlee Singler faces murder, attempted murder and child abuse charges. Her extradition trial began in September of 2024.
The tragic incident unfolded on Dec. 19, 2023, when a call was made to 911 reporting a burglary in Colorado Springs. Upon arrival, Colorado Springs police discovered Kimberlee Singler, a 35-year-old woman, and her 11-year-old daughter both injured. Tragically, they also found Singler’s 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son deceased at the scene.
Extradition ruling for mom accused of killing two not expected until January
At the time of the discovery, Singler had suffered superficial knife wounds and was initially treated as a victim alongside her injured daughter. Both were then transported to a nearby hospital for medical attention. Singler was permitted to leave the hospital as law enforcement believed she was a victim and a potential witness during that initial period.
The Colorado Springs Police Department Homicide Unit then took over the investigation and determined the burglary report was unfounded. Singler has denied that she harmed her children. She told police that her ex-husband had either carried out the killings or hired a hitman. Authorities said he had a solid alibi backed up by GPS records that showed he had been driving a truck at the time of the killings.
But that changed when her surviving daughter, who initially said she had been attacked by an intruder, told police her mother tried to kill her. The girl told police that her mother gave the children milk with a powdery substance to drink and told them to close their eyes as she guided them into a sibling’s bedroom, prosecutors said.
Singler cut her neck and, as the girl begged her to stop, she slashed her again. The girl said her mother had a gun.
“The defendant told her that God was telling her to do it, and that the children’s father would take them away,” Joel Smith (KC), representing the United States government, said at a previous hearing.
Investigators obtained an arrest warrant for Singler on Dec. 26, 2023. She was arrested in the United Kingdom on Dec. 30, 2023.
U.K. Judge John Zani delivered his verdict Friday, siding in favor of extradition. Singler has 14 days to appeal the ruling. The case is now in the hands of the Colorado Secretary of State.
The timeline for when Singler could be expected to return to Colorado has not yet been released and could be delayed, should her appeal be heard.
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Singler’s attorney had argued that sending her back to the U.S. would violate European human rights law, in part, because she faces a sentence of life in prison without parole in Colorado if convicted of first-degree murder. Such a sentence would be inhumane because it offers no prospect for release even if she is rehabilitated, attorney Edward Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald said that despite an option for a Colorado governor to commute her sentence at some point, it was “political suicide” to do so.
Experts for the defense had originally said that a life sentence had never been commuted in Colorado. But prosecutors later found that Gov. John Hickenlooper in 2018 commuted life sentences of five men convicted of murder.
The defense countered that three of those sentences were not life without parole and two were for men who committed their crime between the ages of 18 and 21, which is sometimes considered a mitigating factor at sentencing because of their relative youth.
“This defendant, Kimberlee Singler, has no real prospect of release no matter what progress she makes” behind bars, Fitzgerald said.
Prosecutor Joel Smith said the judge only had to consider if there is a mechanism that could allow Singler to be freed someday.
“Prospect of release — that is not your concern,” Smith told the judge at a hearing in December.
Zani said in his ruling that there was an option in Colorado to release an inmate serving a life sentence.
“I am satisfied that the defendant has failed to vault the hurdle necessary in order to succeed in the challenges raised,” the judge said.
Fitzgerald said he planned to appeal.
*The Associated Press contributed to this report.
