Investigators needed more than nine years to bring Julio Ceasar Guerrero to court.
He made his first appearance Friday on a charge that he shot a man to death on April 15, 1983.Shortly after 22-year-old Enrique Pasillas Alcala was shot and killed during a fight at a dance hall, Salt Lake police believed they had the case solved. Guerrero was charged with murder but fled to Mexico and could not be found.
The evidence was stored and the case put on hold until detectives received word last year that Guerrero was back in the country and serving time in a federal prison in Texas.
"We've been wheeling and dealing for some time to get him back here," explained Salt Lake Police Sgt. Mike Roberts.
Thursday, Guerrero was brought back to Salt Lake City and booked into jail. He was arraigned Friday and ordered to appear before Judge Robin Reese on Oct. 29.
Prosecutors dropped the charges in 1990 after witnesses to the shooting moved and could not be located. Until the warrant was withdrawn, Guerrero's twin brother, who lives in Salt Lake City, kept getting arrested on his brother's murder warrant, Roberts said.
But when Guerrero, 35, was arrested and sent to a federal prison for drug charges, Detectives John Johnson, Robin Howell and others began searching for the lost witnesses. Once located, the murder charge was refiled.
Alcala was shot once in the chest with a small-caliber handgun during a fight involving about 15 people at Carpenters Hall, 120 W. 1300 South. The fight broke out as people were leaving the dance about 12:45 a.m.
The suspect apparently fired into a crowd of people. At the time, police said they did not know if the shot was random or if the gunman aimed for Alcala.
Salt Lake County Chief Deputy Attorney Bud Ellett said the state is essentially borrowing Guerrero from the federal prison in order to prosecute him. Should Guerrero be convicted, he would likely have to return to Texas to complete his sentence (he has a 1995 release date) before he could be sentenced in Utah.