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Heriberto Gomez Galicia, 62, was turned over to Mexican authorities May 6, 2015. He was arrested in Watsonville in 2014 on suspicion of killing seven people, including an 8-year-old child, and wounding four others in Mexico in 1991.
Photo: Courtesy / U.S. Immigration And Customs
A Mexican national, wanted on suspicion of murdering seven people more than 20 years ago and captured last year in Santa Cruz County, was turned over to Mexican authorities Wednesday at a San Diego-area border crossing, officials said.
Heriberto Gomez Galicia, 62, and two of his brothers allegedly stalked the patriarch of a family he had been feuding with in Oaxaca in October 1991. When the man fled, Galicia and his brothers went after the man’s family.
A warrant issued for his arrest by Mexican authorities in 1992 accuses him of murdering seven people, including an 8-year-old child, and wounding four others, including a child who was 3 years old, officials said, though no details on how the attack occurred were released.
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In 2014, officials with the U.S. Marshals Service got a tip that Gomez might have tried to register a car in California using his dead brother’s identity. Officials obtained a copy of the original arrest warrant from the Mexican Attorney General’s Office and Gomez was arrested at his home in Watsonville on November 16.
“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,” said Timothy Aitken, field office director for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations unit in San Francisco.
In a statement to authorities, Gomez admitted using four aliases, allowing him to illegally obtain work authorization and identification documents, including a California driver’s license and a card allowing him to obtain Medi-Cal benefits, officials said.
Gomez was detained as a flight risk and on April 16 a judge ordered him back to Mexico.
“This fugitive’s arrest and repatriation are the direct result of the ongoing cooperation between U.S. law enforcement and our Mexican counterparts. 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,” Aitken said.
Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfkale
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