State Police Capt. R.L. Scroggins said he understood that the airman, James W. Hutchins of Forest City N.C., has waived extradition to New Mexico.

First degree murder charges were to be filed here Tuesday by District Attorney Bert Prince.

An autopsy of the body of Bruce Weibell, 32-year-old Dallas truck driver, showed he had been shot three times just above the eyes with a .22-caliber gun. Capt. Scroggins said Weibell once lived at Derby [Adams County], Colo.

Weibell's body was found under a bridge 13 miles east of here Monday by the wife of an Indian policeman, Mrs. Willie Collins. She found Weibell's body, his stockinged feet resting on the third strand of a barbed wire fence, while horseback riding.

Sheriff Kelsey Presley of Gallup, however, expressed the theory that Weibell was slain as he slept.

"My theory," Sheriff Presley said, "is that Weibell was lying in the back seat asleep. I think Hutchins turned and shot him."

Hutchins has denied any part in a second slaying, that of an unidentified blonde woman whose nude, battered body was found last week near Boulder, Colo.