Suspect in letter theft now in county

The man charged with stealing six letters by author William Faulkner from the Rare Book Room at Southeast Missouri State University's Kent Library was extradited Thursday from Little Rock, Ark., to Cape Girardeau County.

Robert Hardin Smith, 43, of Jacksonville, Ark., arrived at 3 p.m. in Jackson in the custody of Southeast's Department of Public Safety. He remains in jail in lieu of $25,000 bail. His first appearance in Cape Girardeau County Associate Circuit Court is set for Monday.

Smith, a former public defender, has prior convictions for stealing historic manuscripts from the University of Kansas and the University of Arkansas in 1996.

He served two years from both sentences -- 15 years on the Arkansas charge and 11 months on the Kansas charge -- concurrently in Arkansas before being paroled in 1999.

Smith surrendered his law license in Arkansas in 1993 after being charged with forgery and writing checks with insufficient funds.