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Murder suspect caught in Mexico to be first test of new extradition rules


ASSOCIATED PRESS

5:18 a.m. January 25, 2006

LOS ANGELES – A man convicted of shooting his ex-wife and suspected of killing her father was captured in Mexico and could become a test case for new Mexican extradition rules, officials said.
Mexico had been a sanctuary to U.S. murder suspects facing life sentences until November, when that country's highest court overturned a 4-year-old ban preventing extradition for suspects who could face life without parole.

Daniel Perez, 34, is now the first person facing extradition under that ruling, officials said.

He was captured in Mazatlan on Monday, more than six years after his ex-wife was kidnapped and shot and her father was killed. Perez was convicted in absentia of attempted murder in his ex-wife's case and sentenced to 33 years in prison.

"This is the first case we will bring to justice, but it will not be the last," said Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who is seeking to extradite Perez.

Perez kidnapped his ex-wife, Anabella Vara, from a restaurant in the suburb of South Gate and shot her in the head in April 1999. She survived, and he was charged with attempted murder.

After Vara's father testified against Perez in court, the older man was shot to death at his home in Fontana, in San Bernardino County. Perez had been free on bail at the time and fled to Mexico, authorities said.

Mexican and U.S. authorities tracked down Perez from a tip on a Web site created by Cooley's office – www.escapingjustice.com – said John Clark, chief inspector for the U.S. Marshals Service.

Authorities promised the Mexican government they would not seek the death penalty in the killing of Carlos Vara, said San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney Jefferson Powell. A 1978 treaty with the United States allows Mexico to deny extradition in death penalty cases.

Extradition could take two to three months, he said.