Oxnard Slaying Suspect Returned From Philippines

As detectives closed in on him in February, slaying suspect George Evangelista Doctolero made a run for it.

With the help of family members and friends, the 19-year-old alleged gang member from Oxnard flew to the Philippines and tried to disappear.

But authorities caught up with him in his native land and on Tuesday, Doctolero stepped off a plane in handcuffs--the first fugitive returned to the United States under a new extradition treaty with the Philippines.

Booked into the Ventura County Jail, Doctolero is expected to be arraigned Friday on charges that he shot to death 24-year-old Jose Basilan in January in front of John’s Rendezvous Room in Oxnard.

Doctolero’s return trip marks the end of a nine-month odyssey for both Oxnard police detectives and Ventura County prosecutors, as well as a key test for the new extradition treaty.

“It’s a test case,” said John Russell, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department in Washington D.C. “We picked it because it was a murder case and because it involved a Filipino national.”

What was essentially a low-profile homicide case turned into an investigation and extradition process involving dozens of law enforcement officials from the FBI and the Philippines national police as well as U.S. State Department officials.

“Maybe this doesn’t seem like that big of a case, but it was important to us,” said Oxnard homicide Det. Lee Wilcox. “Every homicide case is important to us. We’re not going to go to the family and say we couldn’t do something because it cost too much or would take too much time.”

Oxnard police arrested Doctolero’s alleged accomplice, Mario Labrica Desequera, 26, last winter.

According to police, the two were arguing with friends of Basilan in front of the Saviers Boulevard restaurant Jan. 19 when Desequera allegedly pulled a knife and Basilan stepped in between. That is when, police believe, Doctolero drew a gun and shot Basilan.

A few days after the shooting, Det. Doug Wiley spoke with Desequera by phone and the suspect turned himself in to authorities.

Detectives, acting on an informant’s tip, found the semiautomatic handgun used in the shooting in a riverbed in central California about five hours north of Oxnard.

And from interviews with people who knew Doctolero, the detectives found out where he was hiding in the Philippines.

Det. Mike Palmeri sought help from Kevin Kelly, an FBI agent working out of the Ventura office.

Kelly knew a treaty had been signed with the Philippines in October 1996 and knew that Doctolero could be extradited.

“We have to first determine that they are willing to extradite from wherever that person may have fled to,” Kelly said.

In this case the Ventura County district attorney’s office set up a $10,000 line of credit to prove it had the resources and the commitment to bring Doctolero back.

“We felt that the commitment was there and we went forward,” Kelly said.

A felony warrant had already been issued for Doctolero, and the Oxnard detectives had information that he had fled to his mother’s home in a small city.

Kelly contacted two agents who worked as legal attaches at the American Embassy in the Philippines.

Those agents contacted law enforcement officials there who, after a short investigation, confirmed that Doctolero was at his mother’s home.

At that point, Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Bamieh began talking to the U.S. attorney who handles extradition.

“They told me it had never been done before, and I asked ‘Well how do we get to the top of the list?’ ” Bamieh recalled.

Bamieh and the detectives put together the paperwork, submitting more than 200 pages of material that included affidavits from the lead investigators, details of the crime, a list of evidence, pictures, and transcripts from Doctolero’s co-defendant’s preliminary hearing.

There was a lot of give-and-take between the two countries as the application was honed and more material submitted.

“Until July we weren’t sure they would be able to get our guy, and we thought at least we’d have to wait awhile,” Bamieh said.

The Filipino authorities issued an arrest warrant for Doctolero, and he was picked up by local police July 4. Although Doctolero did not fight his extradition to the U.S., a Filipino judge wanted to have a formal extradition hearing.

“I think the judge was just being extra careful because this kind of thing hadn’t happened before,” Bamieh said.

In September, though, the judge waived the hearing and on Tuesday, Det. Palmeri and a U.S. marshal went to the Philippines to pick up Doctolero.