COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- South Carolina's attorney general recommends that Gov. Nikki Haley extradite a 36-year-old man arrested in Clarendon County to Virginia to face four murder charges.

A spokesman for Attorney General Alan Wilson says his office recommended Monday that John Moses Ragin be returned to Virginia. Ragin is accused of stabbing to death his wife and her three children, ages 6, 10 and 15. Their bodies were found in their burned Newport News, Va., apartment Aug. 19.

Ragin fought his extradition. He says he is innocent and should be freed.

He was repeatedly reminded at Friday's hearing that it had nothing to do with his guilt or innocence.

Ragin was arrested early Aug. 20 after calling detectives to say he was in Manning. Their 5-year-old son was left at a relative's house.

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