ALBANY, N.Y. — A woman accused of killing her twin sister by driving their SUV off a cliff in Maui won’t fight extradition from upstate New York, her lawyer said Wednesday.
Alexandria Duval intends to waive her right to an extradition hearing during a court appearance Friday, clearing the way for her to return to Hawaii this month and fight a second-degree murder charge.
“She’s just anxious to get back in order to be able to defend herself on the case,” lawyer Kevin K. O’Brien said. “Her big fight is not here, it’s in Hawaii.”
Authorities say Alexandria Duval, 38, was driving an SUV in May with her sister, Anastasia, in the passenger seat when the vehicle crashed into a rock wall and plunged about 200 feet. Authorities have described a hair-pulling fight over the steering wheel.
She traveled to upstate New York after an initial indictment stemming from the fatal crash was dismissed by a judge earlier this year. After Duval was arrested in Albany last month, her lawyer at the time said did not even know there was a second indictment against her.
“She never thought she was fleeing,” O’Brien said.
The sisters were born Alison and Ann Dadow in the Utica, New York, area, about 80 miles west of Albany.
They operated popular yoga studios in Palm Beach County, Florida, from 2008 to 2014 before they changed their names. They moved to Hawaii in December 2015 from Utah.