Suspect in 1999 Candy Cane Lane Slaying Is Arrested in Mexico

A man suspected of fatally shooting a visitor to a holiday lights display in Woodland Hills more than four years ago has been arrested on first-degree murder charges in Mexico, a Los Angeles Police Department detective said Wednesday.

Police have long suspected that ex-convict Carlos Alvaro Beltrani Merino, 36, fled to his native country after the 1999 Christmas evening slaying of Francisco Javier Hernandez, a 24-year-old construction worker from Winnetka.

Hernandez was shot in front of his wife, young son and a number of horrified onlookers in the Candy Cane Lane area of Woodland Hills, known for its annual outdoor lights display.

Mexican authorities arrested Merino on Sunday in Veracruz, but LAPD homicide Det. Rick Swanston said he had few other details.

Merino will probably be prosecuted in Mexico, where he could face 40 years to life in prison, the detective said.

“He is exposed to the same kind of sentence in Mexico that he would be eligible for in the United States, and that’s fine with us,” Swanston said.

Merino has a criminal history with a propensity for violence, Swanston said. He was involved in the sale of falsified identification, including Social Security and alien registration cards.

According to police, Hernandez believed that Merino owed him $1,300 in a dispute over auto insurance. On Christmas night, Hernandez confronted Merino near Calvert Street and Lubao Avenue. After a brief conversation, Merino allegedly shot Hernandez and ran away.

Police served a search warrant at Merino’s last U.S. residence in Sylmar in late 1999. “We recovered incriminating evidence in his apartment and discovered he had fled. He left town within hours of the shooting,” Swanston said.

News of the arrest brought a modicum of relief Wednesday to the Hernandez family. “We’re not content, but we’re glad that they found him,” said the victim’s mother, Teresa Hernandez, 55, of Winnetka.