An optometrist is sitting in a Milwaukee jail while he fights extradition on charges that he murdered an online escort who was supposed to marry him in a sham wedding, but left him at the altar.

Police say Dr. Dean Barrette, 44, tracked 24-year-old Alison Daniels to a Minnesota hotel room and shot her in the head. They believe he returned to Wisconsin the next day to cut grass at the home he shared with his mother before leaving for a planned three-week motel stay in Glendale, Wis.

He was arrested at the motel Aug. 7 and announced last Friday that he is fighting extradition to Minnesota.

Police say Barrette and Daniels, 24, met after the doctor's relationship with another escort went sour. The pair met in Las Vegas at the end of July and planned to get hitched at the Chapel of the Bells. According to a probable cause affidavit, police believe Barrette gave Daniels $4,000 in exchange for her vows. The documents do not say why Barrette wanted to enter a sham marriage.

Barrette booked two separate hotel rooms in Las Vegas on July 24 using two separate credit cards. A witness told police he saw Barrette give Daniels a large envelope that the witness believed contained a large sum of money. The pair was supposed to get married that day, but Daniels and the witness took off, leaving Barrette at the chapel with the hotel bill and out $4,000, according to court documents.

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Later, on Aug. 6, Daniels was working as an escort in room 840 of the University Radisson Hotel in Minneapolis, police say. She called a friend to say that she was "with the guy from 'that situation in Vegas'" and he was holding a gun to her head, according to the probable cause affidavit.

The friend told police Daniels asked him to wire $4,000 to her. The friend, who was not identified by police, said he thought Daniels was conning him and hung up.

Nine minutes later, the door to Daniels' hotel room opened from the inside, according to key-card records, and there was no more activity from the room, according to court documents.

Daniels was found dead of a single gunshot wound to the head later that night. When police arrived, they observed signs of a struggle. A large amount of hair consistent with Daniels' hair was found throughout the room. There was a cellphone broken on the floor, and the hotel phone had been unplugged.

Telephone records showed that a cellphone registered to Barrette sent a signal to a tower close to the hotel where Daniels was found dead about one hour before the murder.

Court documents did not explain how Barrette might have tracked Daniels to Minnesota, and Minneapolis Police Department officers and detectives did not return calls for comment.

Police learned Barrette was staying in a La Quinta hotel in Wisconsin, where he had reserved a room for 21 days, beginning on the day of the murder. Police checked several La Quinta hotels until they found his vehicle located in the parking lot at one, and arrested him in his room.

According to court documents, police found a boarding pass with Daniels' name, a reservation form for the Chapel of Bells in Las Vegas, a Las Vegas hotel room key card, a computer, heavy-duty duct tape, and a pair of shoes that appeared to have blood on them.

Barrette has been charged in Hennepin County, Minn., with first-degree murder. He is schedule to appear in court Sept. 9. He faces life in prison if convicted.

A woman who answered the phone at Barrette's residence declined to comment.