Man Wanted in Killing of O.C. Girl Is Captured

Nearly five years after an Ontario man fled after being accused in the shooting death of a 14-year-old La Habra girl in Fontana, Mexican officers arrested him Monday and turned him over to U.S. authorities, who brought him back to San Bernardino County.

Daniel Martinez, 24, was handed over to FBI agents and U.S. marshals after Mexican authorities found him in Guadalajara, Mexico. He is being held at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga on $1 million bail on suspicion of first-degree murder and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Sheriff’s detectives say Martinez, with George Vargas and Gilberto Arriaga, both of Fontana, shot Marisol Luna, 14, during a Jan. 2, 1999, drive-by attack in the 9200 block of Hibiscus Drive in Fontana. Aaron Shackelford, 16, of Fontana also was shot several times and survived. Officers say Shackelford was the intended target of the shooting.

San Bernardino County sheriff’s detectives identified the three men as suspects, first arresting Vargas in June 1999 in a Tijuana motel. Eight days later, deputies arrested Arriaga at his Fontana home. Each was convicted of murder and sentenced to 90 years to life in state prison.

Sgt. Bobby Dean of the sheriff’s homicide unit said Martinez drove the vehicle in which Vargas and Arriaga rode when they shot Luna and Shackelford in a gang-related attack. Dean said Martinez could be subject to a sentence similar to Vargas and Arriaga’s.

“This [arrest] seals that case,” Dean said.

The arrest comes less than two weeks after a joint U.S.-Mexican manhunt ended in the arrest of David Garcia, wanted in the slaying of Burbank police officer Matthew Pavelka.

Martinez will probably be arraigned this week in San Bernardino County Superior Court.