LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Schoolteacher John Mark Karr waived extradition Tuesday, speeding his journey to Colorado to face charges in the 1996 slaying of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey.
A judge in Los Angeles ordered Karr transferred to Boulder, Colorado, at the end of a five-minute hearing. It was not clear when that might occur.
A warrant issued by authorities in Boulder called for Karr's arrest on suspicion of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual assault on a child.
He was taken into custody last week in Bangkok, Thailand, but has not yet been formally charged with any crime.
Karr was flown over the weekend from Bangkok to Los Angeles. (Watch the suspect's strange flight across the Pacific -- 2:53)
Although Karr made incriminating statements to reporters and law enforcement officials in Bangkok, attorney Patience van Zandt, who met with him on Monday, said the statements don't amount to a confession.
"No. Absolutely not," said van Zandt, who represented Karr as a public defender in the 2001 Sonoma County child pornography case.
"I think that the man that we just heard was an exhausted, overwhelmed person who was under an extraordinary amount of pressure," van Zandt told CNN. "I do not think that amounts to a confession."
Karr was briefly placed under a suicide watch at the Los Angeles jail, van Zandt said, because he was "terrified, exhausted and confused."
Van Zandt and her law partner, Jamie Harmon, met with Karr for several hours Monday. Harmon said they will be involved in his case, but it's not yet clear how.
Lin Wood, the attorney for JonBenet's father, John Ramsey, told CNN on Monday that his client's reaction to Karr's arrest was "one of hope," although he does not know if the case has been solved.
"He does not know whether Mr. Karr is guilty of that crime. He does not know the evidence upon which the district attorney is relying in making the arrest," Wood said.
Flown from Thailand
Karr arrived in Los Angeles Sunday night after a 15-hour flight from Thailand, accompanied by a swarm of reporters who tracked his every move, including what he ate, where he sat and how many times he went to the bathroom.
He was not handcuffed, but he was accompanied by two agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and an investigator for the Boulder District Attorney's office.
Before the jet landed, Karr changed his shirt, put on a tie and combed his hair. Thai authorities said he requested a shirt and tie to wear so he would look like a teacher when he arrived back in the United States.
Once on the ground, Karr was arrested by deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and whisked by helicopter to the Twin Towers jail in downtown Los Angeles, where he spent Monday night in isolation inside a 6-by-9-foot cell, wearing a standard blue jail uniform.
Commenting to reporters last week in Bangkok, Karr, admitted being involved in the 6-year-old pageant competitor's death.
"I loved JonBenet, and she died accidentally," he said. Asked if he was an innocent man, Karr replied, "No."
The child's body was found in the basement of her family's Colorado home the day after Christmas in 1996.
Questions about statement
Questions continue about whether Karr might be a compulsive confessor, or simply a crackpot.
Authorities in Boulder are not commenting on details of their investigation and have urged the public not to rush to judgment.
It is not known how Karr might have gotten into the Ramsey house, and if he did, how he might have been able to lure the child to the basement without awakening other family members.
Still, a U.S. law enforcement source told CNN that Karr provided investigators with gruesome details about the condition of the girl's body -- details that had not been publicly disclosed.
Karr's ex-wife, Lara Karr, has cast doubt on his admission, saying he was with her and their children in Alabama that entire Christmas season.
Lara Karr filed for a protective order in October 2001 to keep him away from her and their three sons, citing his child pornography arrest that April. In court documents she said that in 1996 -- months before Ramsey was killed -- an Alabama school district had dropped Karr as a substitute teacher because of concerns he was "too affectionate" with children.
Karr was fascinated by Ramsey case and the 1993 slaying of 12-year-old Polly Klaas in Petaluma, California. He and his family lived in Petaluma in 2000, Lara Karr said.
Wanted sex change?
New details emerged Monday about the enigmatic Karr.
He was undergoing treatment at a clinic in Thailand for removal of facial hair. Dr. Setthakarn Attakonpan of the Siam Swan Cosmetic Clinic in Thailand told CNN Karr was undergoing hair removal because he wanted a sex-change operation.
Just two days before his arrest, Karr had taken a job as a teacher in an international school in Thailand. CNN has learned that in 2004, a school in Honduras took him on as a volunteer teacher, but he lasted only three weeks.
"He was very difficult," said Caridad Pineda, the school's director. "He didn't like the school rules. He was a problem, and that's why we decided to fire him."
Karr then went on to work teaching second-grade at another school but left after eight months. It was unclear why he left Honduras.
Karr's arrest in Bangkok was the culmination of a probe that began after University of Colorado professor Michael Tracey contacted authorities in Boulder.
Tracey, who produced a documentary about JonBenet's killing, had been in touch with Karr for several years. Karr's e-mails to Tracey were initially innocuous. But then they became "weird," a law enforcement official said.
Karr tried to contact the Ramsey family, but his correspondence was intercepted by police.
JonBenet's mother, Patsy Ramsey, agreed with meet with Karr to help the investigation but died of ovarian cancer at age 49 in June.