Fugitive in 1991 Slayings of O.C. Men Is Seized at LAX

A four-year manhunt ended this week when Riverside police and FBI agents arrested a man accused of fatally stabbing two Orange County men during a brawl, police said Thursday.

Joseph Avila, 28, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Sept. 17 as he was arriving from Guadalajara, Mexico, Sgt. Dan Padelford said.

Avila was booked at Riverside County jail on suspicion of murdering Robert Joseph Navarro, 20, of Buena Park and Raul Humberto Moncada, 18, of Stanton on Jan. 13, 1991.

Navarro and Moncada were last seen driving along Magnolia Street in Riverside, a popular “cruising” strip, on that day when an argument among the three broke out.

“It was a Riverside County versus Orange County thing,” Padelford said, describing territorial rivalry as a common conflict on that five-mile stretch.

“At the time we were experiencing a great deal of cruising. We would get thousands of people coming into the city, creating this ‘us versus them’ thing,” Padelford said.

The three men took the argument to a restaurant parking lot, where a fight broke out. Avila allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed Navarro and Moncada to death in front of about 100 people, Padelford said.

Authorities had identified Avila as the suspect several days after the killings. But when officials later believed that Avila had fled to Mexico where he had relatives, they were skeptical he would be captured.

The day before Avila was scheduled to return to Los Angeles on Sunday, an anonymous caller gave police his flight information.

Navarro’s mother, Grace Navarro, said Thursday, “I was shocked. I was happy. I was elated. But a lot of emotions came back. Anger came back. Memories from the day we found out he was killed were rehashed. All the anger and the hurt, all the trauma my family has been through.”