By The Hays Daily News

EL DORADO -- A former Hays man suspected of killing a Kansas college student and fleeing to Mexico with his then-pregnant 16-year-old girlfriend who was also from Hays made his first appearance in a Kansas court today.

Israel Mireles appeared in Butler County District Court to face charges stemming from the November 2007 death of 18-year-old Emily Sander, a student at Butler Community College.

He faces charges of capital murder, rape and aggravated sodomy. Bond was set at $3 million, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 8.

The case drew national attention after the discovery that Sander also was an Internet pornography model who went by the name Zoey Zane.

Mireles was seen with Sander six days before her body was found. He and his girlfriend, Victoria Martens, disappeared and later were found in Mexico, where Mireles was arrested.

He was held there until extradited back to the United States.

Mireles also was charged in Ellis County in November 2007 with aggravated indecent liberties with a child for "unlawfully, feloniously, willfully and intentionally engaged in sexual intercourse with a child 15 years of age."

Martens returned to the U.S. in January 2008 and gave birth to a girl.

Charges of aggravated indecent liberties with a child filed in Ellis County against Mireles in November 2007 still stand, although whether he will be prosecuted on that charge is undermined, Ellis County Attorney Tom Drees said this morning.

"Unless Mexico agrees, he cannot be prosecuted on that charge," Drees said.

A request to prosecute the charge has been made, but has not yet been addressed in the extradition treaty between the federal government and Mexico.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.