http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascit ... 040483.htm

Posted on Fri, Nov. 17, 2006

Fingerprint hit leads to murder charge against illegal immigrant
Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - An illegal immigrant arrested in southwest Missouri turned out to be a fugitive wanted in South Carolina on a murder warrant, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Friday.

Isaias Diaz-Gutierrez, 26, a Mexican national, was arrested late last week in Branson and charged with resisting arrest, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Carl Rusnok said.

Diaz-Gutierrez was using an assumed name, Rusnok said. Branson police suspected he might be in the country illegally and contacted immigration officials.

A search of a national fingerprint database, Rusnok said, linked Diaz-Gutierrez to the killing of Clarence Cubley, 81, of Fort Mill, S.C. Cubley was beaten with a concrete block in December 2002, and he died in January 2003 of his injuries.

The warrant charges Diaz-Gutierrez with murder, armed robbery and three counts of forgery.

His girlfriend, Dana Gaston Blackmon, pleaded guilty in 2003 to armed robbery. At the time, she told prosecutors that she helped Diaz-Gutierrez take a safe from Cubley's home.

Diaz-Gutierrez remained jailed in Greene County, awaiting extradition to South Carolina.