Posted on 01/25/2006 9:31:19 AM PST by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES – A man convicted of shooting his ex-wife and suspected of killing her father was captured in Mexico and could become a test case for new Mexican extradition rules, officials said.
Mexico had been a sanctuary to U.S. murder suspects facing life sentences until November, when that country's highest court overturned a 4-year-old ban preventing extradition for suspects who could face life without parole.
Daniel Perez, 34, is now the first person facing extradition under that ruling, officials said.
He was captured in Mazatlan on Monday, more than six years after his ex-wife was kidnapped and shot and her father was killed. Perez was convicted in absentia of attempted murder in his ex-wife's case and sentenced to 33 years in prison.
"This is the first case we will bring to justice, but it will not be the last," said Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who is seeking to extradite Perez.
Perez kidnapped his ex-wife, Anabella Vara, from a restaurant in the suburb of South Gate and shot her in the head in April 1999. She survived, and he was charged with attempted murder.
After Vara's father testified against Perez in court, the older man was shot to death at his home in Fontana, in San Bernardino County. Perez had been free on bail at the time and fled to Mexico, authorities said.
Mexican and U.S. authorities tracked down Perez from a tip on a Web site created by Cooley's office – www.escapingjustice.com – said John Clark, chief inspector for the U.S. Marshals Service.
Authorities promised the Mexican government they would not seek the death penalty in the killing of Carlos Vara, said San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney Jefferson Powell. A 1978 treaty with the United States allows Mexico to deny extradition in death penalty cases.
Extradition could take two to three months, he said.
The Vara Family's Story
http://www.escapingjustice.com/vara.htm
fyi
Considering that Mexico refuses to cooperate with handing over fugitives, maybe we should just hunt them down in Mexico and bring them back and try them. This BS of Mexico not cooperating are simply stall tactics, nothing more.
If the feds sealed the border like they should be doing all along, this murder would never happen on US soil. Damn the gov that lets this crap go on and on.
Just another fine Mexican. It's important that we protect his human rights, and allow him to live at large in Mexico.
(Unless he wants to go back to the USA to kill more folks. That would also be his right. We'll even give him a map to help him cross the border.)
This poster released by the Humane Borders group on Tuesday Jan. 24, 2006, shows a map with migrant deaths (red dots) on the Arizona desert and warns that crossing through the desert is extremely dangerous. Mexico's National Commisision for Human Rights has agreed to print and distribute these warning posters and maps as a way of informing migrants of the actual dangers in the desert and as a way of assisting migrants in making responsible decisions. (AP Photo/Humane Borders-HO)
First it was refusing expedition for execution, then it was life without parole? I didn't realize the idiots did that too? Glad they switched that law.
I'm beginning to hate Mexico.
That is not a racist comment.
From FR 1/24/06
Mexican Commission to Give Migrants Maps
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1564213/posts
>>>Considering that Mexico refuses to cooperate with handing over fugitives, maybe we should just hunt them down in Mexico and bring them back and try them. This BS of Mexico not cooperating are simply stall tactics, nothing more.>>>
Isn't that what Dog the Bounty Hunter did and he got arrested in Mexico for attempting it.
gotta love mexico. "sure, we'll send over any citizens of mexico as illegal immigrants, we'll even give them directions for border crossings, where to find water and everything.. but there's no way in heck we'll give you back your convicted criminals."
Yeah, but I would hope the guys we send would be a tad smarter and less mouthy about it.
You have a point.
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