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A man who was a fugitive for more than 20 years and was discovered living in Santa Cruz County last year was deported to Mexico on Wednesday on charges of massacring family members — including an 8-year-old — of a ranch patriarch in Mexico with whom he and his brothers had feuded, officials said.
U.S. Marshals arrested Heriberto Gomez Galicia, 62, in November in Watsonville. He admitted to agents at the time of his arrest to using four aliases, including one of his dead brother, which allowed him to not only elude capture but also to illegally get authorization to work and identification documents, including a California driver’s license and to be on Medi-Cal.
“For the victims in this case, justice has been a long time coming, but they can take consolation in the fact that the alleged assailant is now being held accountable,” Timothy Aitken, field office director for the Enforcement and Removal Operations in San Francisco, said in a news release. “Violent criminals who commit reprehensible crimes and believe they can evade justice by fleeing to the U.S. should be on notice — they will find no refuge here.”
Department of Homeland Security officials said they were not sure just when Gomez came to the United States but that he did so illegally.
According to officials, a warrant was issued by Mexican authorities in the state of Oaxaca in July 1992 for Gomez, nearly a year after he was accused of killing seven people, trying to kill two others and severely injuring two more victims.
On Oct. 9, 1991, Mexican officials believe Gomez and two of his brothers targeted a rancher and his family because of a feud between the families. Gomez and his brothers reportedly stalked the patriarch of the ranch as he tended to livestalk, and when that man fled, Gomez and his brothers allegedly sought out other members of the man’s family and viciously attacked them, officials said. Six of those targeted in the assault were children, including an 8-year-old, who died. One of the wounded children was only 3 years old, officials added.
Officials did not detail the attack or how the victims died.
In the fall of 2014, representatives with the U.S. Marshals got a lead on where Gomez might be and that he had used his dead brother’s name to register a car in California. Just weeks later, on Nov. 16, 2014, Gomez was found and arrested at his home in Watsonville.
After his arrest, agents detained Gomez as a flight and public safety risk while his deportation case was pending. On April 16, an immigration judge ordered Gomez be returned to Mexico.
Contact Katie Nelson at 408-920-5006 and follow her at Twitter.com/katienelson210.
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