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Fugitive spends another of his '9 lives' Saturday Apr 21, 2001 at 2:00 AM Dec 17, 2010 at 9:01 AM Given reprieve, he's stopped near Medford, returned to Eugene From staff and wire reports In a race to the border through Medford, state police on Friday stopped a California prison van from leaving with a 70-year-old Oregon man who hours earlier had lost his battle to stay out of prison for the 1963 murder of a highway patrolman. The California Department of Corrections took custody of Robert Lee Burns of Springfield earlier in the day after a Lane County circuit judge denied his motion to stay extradition, but Burns' defense attorney won an emergency stay from the Oregon Court of Appeals. Burns was on Interstate 5 south of Medford within 21 miles of the border when Oregon State Police armed with the stay caught up to him and brought him back to Medford, said OSP spokesman Lt. Gregg Hastings. State police attempted to lodge Burns in the Jackson County Jail, but Sheriff Bob Kennedy said jail officials refused. "There are legal issues, some medical issues," Kennedy said, adding that Burns is in poor health. Burns reportedly suffers from cancer and heart disease. "Once we accept him into custody, we're responsible for every little thing." Kennedy estimated that $35,000 to $40,000 is spent every month on the medical needs of inmates in Jackson County. "We're always very careful about who we will accept," he said. Burns left Medford at 4 p.m., Kennedy said. State police transported Burns to the Lane County Jail in Eugene through a series of relays from Central Point to Grants Pass and Roseburg. "The whole family is really excited," said Tammy Ferguson, Burns' ex-sister-in-law, who hours earlier had bid Burns a tearful good-bye in the courtroom. "Bob's boys started crying for joy he didn't get taken to California. As long as he's here in Oregon, they felt like he had a chance." "This guy has nine lives," defense attorney Dave Phillips said of Burns. The dramatic turnaround came just hours after Lane County Circuit Judge Bryan Hodges told Burns that the legal issues facing him should properly be settled in California, where he pleaded guilty to murder after his partner in a 1963 bank robbery killed a highway patrolman during the getaway. Family members sobbed and cried out, "Bye Bob, I love you," as deputies took a frail-looking Burns by the elbows, helped him up from his chair, and led him out of the courtroom into custody. Defense attorney Phillips implored the judge to grant a stay of extradition while the Oregon Court of Appeals heard the case, arguing that sending Burns back to prison in California amounted to a death sentence because he suffers from cancer and heart disease. "The best-case scenario is that he will not be eligible for a compassionate release (because of poor health), and it will be at least six months before he can get a parole hearing," Phillips said. Prosecutor Erik Hasselman countered that it was time for Burns to complete his legal obligations, which were interrupted when Oregon refused to turn him over to California to complete his murder sentence after serving out an unrelated Oregon sentence for robbery. "Oregon made a mistake," Hasselman said. "It is time for justice to be done." Judge Hodges commended Burns for the upstanding life he has led while free, but noted that there was no room within the law to do anything else but return him to California. Earlier this week, Hodges rejected Burns' petition for release. "From your own testimony on all these events, you very clearly had to know you had unfinished business in California," Hodges told Burns. Burns was arrested Jan. 4 at a daughter's house in Springfield after his name popped up on a computer wanted list. While held in the Lane County jail, he was three times taken to a hospital for treatment of his condition until a local lawyer posted his $10,000 bail and he was released March 23. Prior to the hearing, Burns said he had prepared his family for the worst while hoping for the best. "It's just mostly harder on the children than it is on me," he said. "In my mind, I've served 37 years on this sentence, and I'm still serving time on it right now. "I have apologized to (the victim's family) many, many times. Apologizing doesn't cover what they lost." Burns was sentenced to life in 1964 after one of his partners in a Sacramento, Calif., bank robbery shot and killed a California highway patrolman outside Truckee, Calif., during the getaway. The two others involved in the slaying have since been released from prison, and one of them has died. Burns served only 41/2 years in California before he was transferred to Oregon to serve out the remainder of the robbery sentence. Oregon authorities deemed him fully rehabilitated. Then-Gov. Robert Straub refused in 1975 to send him back to California to finish his murder sentence. After his release, Burns sold vacuum cleaners, married, raised three children, and ran a painting business. Phillips argued that California gave up its claims on Burns when it failed to follow through on extradition attempts in 1982 and 1983 when Burns was arrested on fugitive warrants while doing business in Nevada and Alaska. The sanctuary Burns enjoyed in Oregon was revoked in 1987 by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, but California did nothing to go after Burns until 14 years later, Phillips added.