Suspect in 2000 triple homicide in San Diego returned to U.S. after arrest in Mexico

A man suspected of killing three people including a sleeping toddler in a San Diego apartment more than 22 years ago was arrested in Mexico and returned to the United States, San Diego police said.

Sergio Lopez Contreras, 44, was booked into San Diego Central Jail on Wednesday and is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in San Diego Superior Court.

The victims were Michael Plummer, 20, his girlfriend Adah Pearson, 18, and his nephew Julio Rangel, 21 months. Police said the toddler’s parents were inside the apartment but were not hurt in the spray of bullets.

San Diego police Lt. Jud Campbell said Thursday that investigators suspect the killings were drug related.

Court records indicate prosecutors filed charges against Lopez Contreras in 2007, accusing him of three counts of murder with special-circumstance allegations of using a rifle in the killings and lying in wait.

The shooting happened just after 11 p.m. on Sept. 4, 2000, in an apartment complex in the Normal Heights neighborhood.

Police told the San Diego Union-Tribune at the time that Plummer had returned to the apartment after obtaining drugs from a dealer in another apartment but did not pay for them.

The dealer showed up outside the apartment where Plummer and the others were demanding payment, then opened fire through the door, police said.

“About 14 rounds went flying through the living room,” police Lt. Ray Sigwalt told The Union-Tribune.

Plummer died at the scene. Pearson and the toddler were taken to hospitals, where they died.

At the time, police said they believed the suspected shooter fled to Tijuana, where he had relatives.

Campbell said Lopez Contreras was arrested in Mexico on unrelated charges, but did not say when.

On Wednesday, with the cooperation of U.S. and Mexican authorities, Lopez Contreras was brought across the border, transferred into San Diego police custody and booked into jail.