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 News from Around the Americas | March 2007 
Fugitive Extradited from Mexico Gets Life Without Parole in Deputy's Slaying
 Joe Mozingo - LATimes
A man who fled to Mexico after murdering a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy during a traffic stop nearly five years ago was sentenced in a Pomona courtroom Friday to life without the possibility of parole.
Jorge Arroyo Garcia, 30, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for shooting Deputy David March during a traffic stop near Irwindale in the San Gabriel Valley in 2002. Garcia was arrested by Mexican authorities at his uncle's ranch outside of Guadalajara a year ago and handed over to the U.S. Marshals Service on Jan. 9.
Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said Garcia received the same sentence he would have gotten if he had been convicted at trial.
"He's not getting a break at all," Cooley said. "He will die in prison."
Prosecutors could not seek the death penalty because Mexican law prohibits the extradition of fugitives to countries where they could face capital punishment. The law previously included fugitives who faced life sentences, but Mexican authorities overturned that ban in November 2005, leading to Garcia's arrest.
Cooley said sheriff's investigators were "able to secure admissions" from Garcia following his extradition. "He appears to be a broken man and came to at least some realization of what he did."
Garcia reportedly asked March's family for forgiveness in the courtroom.
On April 29, 2002, March pulled over Garcia's black Nissan Maxima on Live Oak Avenue near Peck Avenue. As the officer entered the license plate number into his computer, Garcia shot him multiple times with a 9-mm handgun.
Garcia was wanted for two attempted murders and had been deported twice before.
March's wife, Teri, became an activist lobbying Washington for changes in the Mexico-U.S. extradition system.
Overturning the extradition ban was critical, Cooley said. He said at least two more alleged killers have been arrested in Mexico and are in the pipeline to be tried in Southern California:
Alvaro Jara is accused of firing at rival gang members in Highland Park and killing 12-year-old Steven Morales, a bystander who was playing baseball in front of his apartment complex. And Daniel Perez is suspected of killing the father of his estranged wife, Anabella Vara, after he testified against Perez in a trial for the attempted murder of Vara.
joe.mozingo@latimes.com |
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