U.S., Mexico Argue Over Accused Killer

An international standoff has taken shape over Mexico’s refusal to extradite suspected quadruple-murderer David “Spooky” Alvarez to the United States unless Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti promises not to seek the death penalty for Alvarez’s alleged 1996 Baldwin Park slayings.

U.S. officials said the Mexican government warned this week that it may set Alvarez, a U.S. citizen, free. Garcetti cautioned Wednesday that the case could set a dangerous precedent and send criminals running for the border to elude capital punishment.

And it increases U.S.-Mexican tensions over the death penalty--which Mexico does not have.

As U.S. officials pressed for Alvarez’s extradition, a Mexican citizen on Virginia’s death row was put to death Wednesday night, hours after that state’s governor rejected pleas by Mexican officials to stop the execution.

Alvarez, who is on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list, allegedly shot to death four people in Baldwin Park--including two girls--then fled to Tijuana, where he was arrested in May. But Mexican authorities last month said they would not extradite him unless Garcetti promised not to seek the death penalty--a demand Mexico can make under the terms of its extradition treaty with the United States.

Garcetti, however, said he will not back down. He said no decision has been made to seek the death penalty against Alvarez, though he said the crimes alleged made it “likely.”

“I do not want Mexico, or any foreign country, to become a haven for people who are accused of first-degree murder and who face the death penalty,” Garcetti said. “I do not think that’s good for this country or good for the foreign country.”

Mexican authorities replied in a statement that they are merely following the terms of the treaty approved in 1978 by the U.S. Senate. “What would U.S. authorities have to do to get their request granted? Give an assurance that the death penalty will not be imposed, or if it is, that it will not be carried out,” the communique said.

The Alvarez case is not unique. In 1985, suspected serial killer Charles Ng fled California for Canada, which does not have capital punishment. Like Mexico’s extradition treaty, Canada’s allows the nation to require that the United States waive the death penalty before extraditing a fugitive.

But Canada did not make that demand. Instead, Ng sued in Canadian court to force that country to refuse extradition. The Canadian Supreme Court rejected Ng’s case, and he is awaiting trial in Orange County.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said the United States should not back down in the Alvarez case. “If this extradition is not carried out, it means that any American citizen can commit a murder, skip across the border and avoid a death penalty,” she said. “I would have deep concern about the Mexican government telling the American government how it should treat American citizens.”

But some law enforcement officers involved in the nuts-and-bolts aspects of binational policing said they were afraid the death penalty issue could stand in the way of much-needed cross-border law enforcement cooperation.

Fausto Gonzalez, a member of the San Diego police’s cross-border intelligence force, doubted that Mexico will become more of a haven if Alvarez does not get the death penalty, because life in prison is already a deterrent.

“Mexico would become a safe haven if the extradition treaty stops,” Gonzalez said. “We need to keep that window open and the relationship open.”

Seeking his estranged wife, Alvarez and an accomplice burst into a Baldwin Park home in September 1996 and held an extended family hostage more than an hour, prosecutors allege. The intruders reportedly closed the windows, turned up the television and air conditioner, then shot Massiel and Evelyn Torres, ages 12 and 8, as they lay bound and gagged on the floor. Prosecutors allege that Alvarez and his accomplice, Trinia Irene Aguirre, 21, also executed the girls’ uncle and a gardener and slashed and shot the girls’ parents, who survived.

Aguirre was arrested weeks later, but Alvarez eluded a nationwide manhunt before his May 20 arrest in Tijuana. Authorities said Alvarez had undergone plastic surgery to change his appearance.

After his arrest, the suspect waived his right to fight extradition, authorities said. Garcetti said Justice Department officials in Washington who were working on the extradition told the district attorney that the Mexican attorney general was cooperating. But in August, Garcetti said, Mexico’s foreign minister apparently demanded that the district attorney not seek the death penalty.

The demand came two months after the United States executed a Mexican national in Texas amid strong protests in Mexico. Garcetti wrote a letter to other district attorneys in California and other border states asking whether similar situations had arisen. He said no other district attorney apparently had problems with extradition.

On Tuesday, Garcetti said, U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno told him that Mexican authorities were on the verge of freeing Alvarez, saying they could not hold him any longer because he was not charged with a crime in Mexico. Garcetti said Justice Department officials told him they had a “small window of opportunity” to get Alvarez back.

Jorge A. Vargas, a UC San Diego law professor who specializes in Mexican law, says the case sums up Mexican feelings about the U.S. justice system in the wake of recent executions and alleged assaults on immigrants.

“Mexico is saying we are taking advantage of this opportunity to send a message,” Vargas said. “The perception is that American law enforcement is quite violent and arbitrary . . . and the death penalty is a very barbaric type of punishment.”