ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The man accused of abducting and killing Brooke Wilberger in Corvallis was a big step closer Tuesday to being returned to Oregon to face trial.

Joel Patrick Courtney of Rio Rancho, N.M., was sentenced to 18 years in prison in New Mexico on charges of raping and kidnapping a foreign exchange student at the University of New Mexico.

Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson flew to Albuquerque to attend the sentencing and said he would begin immediately to process the paperwork to extradite Courtney to Oregon, where he could face the death sentence if convicted of aggravated murder.

“My intent is to move as quickly as possible in order to complete that extradition process within 90 days,” Haroldson told the Corvallis Gazette-Times.

Courtney was indicted in Oregon in July 2005 on 19 counts, including aggravated murder, in the May 24, 2004, disappearance of Wilberger.

Wilberger, a 19-year-old student at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, had been cleaning lamp poles outside an apartment complex her sister managed in Corvallis when she vanished.

Her body has not been found.

In the New Mexico case, Courtney and prosecutors agreed to a September plea bargain in which he pleaded guilty to criminal sexual penetration and kidnapping.

District Judge Kenneth Martinez sentenced Courtney under the plea agreement, which called for the 18-year sentence.