Arrest made in New Year's night slaying

Web Posted: 01/25/2008 01:31 PM CST

Roger Croteau
Express-News

A man wanted for a New Year's night slaying where the victim lay injured for hours before his body was found was arrested in Oklahoma early Friday.

Extradition proceedings were already being planned Friday for Juan Manual Garcia, 28, who was wanted on a murder charge in connection to the stabbing death of Ismael Araujo, 22, after the two had left a New Year's party on Mud Track Lane, south of Seguin.

The Lone Star Fugitive Task Force tracked Garcia to Bartlesville, Okla., after a phone number the agency had been monitoring in Texas got a call from a motel there.

The Bartlesville Police SWAT Team surrounded the motel, threw a "flash/bang" grenade through a window, then rushed in and arrested Garcia just after midnight Friday, according to a U.S. Marshals press release.

If investigators determine that anyone knowingly helped Garcia in his flight, they could be charged with a crime, U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Texas LaFayette Collins said in a statement.

"I was very confident that we would get Garcia with the team we had assembled," said Guadalupe County Sheriff Arnold Zwicke in a statement.

Guadalupe County Sheriff's Department spokesman Kevin Jordan said the families of Garcia and Araujo had not been notified of the arrest at noon Friday, but department members were trying to contact them.

According to the arrest affidavit for Garcia, the stabbing occurred between 4:45 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Jan. 1. Guadalupe County Sheriff's Department spokesman Kevin Jordan said there were several witnesses, but no one called 911 for at least two hours. He said some of the witnesses tried to take Araujo to the hospital, but their car broke down.

The affidavit said the two began fighting because of an earlier fight in Mexico between members of their families. Both men were from Mexico and worked in the construction trade in the Seguin area.

Araujo suffered a single stab wound.
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