A man wanted in connection with a fatal shooting in Riverside was arrested this month in Mexico after 19 years on the run, authorities said.
Luis Contreras, 51, now faces trial in California for the 2005 murder.
Luis Contreras, now 51, was recently arrested in Mexicali, Mexico.
(Riverside Police Department)
On the evening of June 14, 2005, Riverside police officers responded to a call of shots fired and an injured person at a residence in the 4700 block of Doane Avenue, according to a police statement.
When officers arrived, they found Alfonso Vera, 38, with multiple gunshot wounds. Vera later died from his injuries.
At that time, several witnesses reported hearing gunshots inside the residence and seeing people fleeing the scene in two cars. The Riverside Police Department later obtained information on the license plate of one of those vehicles.
After numerous interviews, Riverside Robbery-Homicide detectives determined that one of the suspects had gotten into an argument with his girlfriend and then began hitting her.
Authorities say Vera intervened to protect the woman, at which point he was shot.
A couple of weeks after the murder, detectives arrested two people. One of them was charged with accessory to murder and received a three-year prison sentence, but no charges were filed against the second person due to lack of evidence, authorities said in the statement.
The names of those people were not revealed.
Detectives at the time identified Contreras as the suspected gunman and said they believed he had fled to Mexico after the shooting. A warrant was issued for his arrest, but his whereabouts remain unknown.
The Riverside Police Department's Cold Case Homicide Unit reopened the investigation last month, with the goal of finding Contreras. They did so with the support of a U.S. Marshals task force that works to locate and apprehend wanted violent criminals fleeing the Riverside area.
Contreras was arrested on July 8 in Mexicali, Mexico, by the International Unit of the State Force for Citizen Security, working in coordination with the U.S. Marshals.
Contreras has since been booked into the Riverside County Sheriff's Department detention center.
Anyone with additional information is asked to contact the Homicide Cold Case Unit at (951) 320-8000 or by emailing [email protected].
