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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Man accused in fellow Marine's death captured |
| 2008-04-11 |
| U.S. Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean, the main suspect in the killing of a 20-year-old pregnant Marine, has been captured in Mexico three months after fleeing North Carolina, the FBI announced Thursday. "I loved her," Laurean told a Mexican reporter who asked whether he killed Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach. Authorities are awaiting extradition to bring Laurean, who has been on the run since January, back to North Carolina. He has been indicted on charges of murder, ATM card theft, attempted card theft, fraud and robbery with a dangerous weapon. Mexican authorities arrested Laurean at 7 p.m. Thursday in San Juan Vina, in Michoacan, about 120 miles west of the capital, after he approached a roadblock set up by the local anti-kidnapping task force, according to the Michoacan state attorney general's office. Laurean, dressed in a red t-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes, gave authorities his real name, which was entered into a criminal database that alerted authorities to his fugitive status, Guzman said. Police said Laurean was calm and gave no resistance. He told police he had been sleeping in avocado groves and eating the fruit from the trees, Guzman said. Laurean, who grew a scruffy beard, appeared thin and unkempt, Guzman said. "This is a clear message to all would-be fugitives from U.S. law that Mexico will not provide them refuge," U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Antonio O. Garza said in a statement. "Laurean fled to Mexico early this year in the hope of avoiding justice. Despite his attempts to elude apprehension, international police cooperation and cutting edge technology led law-enforcement officials to his capture." However, if Laurean chooses to fight extradition, it could take two years to return him to North Carolina, said Dewey Hudson, district attorney for Onslow County, North Carolina. "I'm very happy he was caught today in Mexico, but I'm disappointed we didn't catch him in America," Hudson said. Mexico's extradition policy prohibits U.S. authorities from seeking the death penalty against fugitives who are turned over by Mexican authorities. A law enforcement official said federal authorities recently seized a computer belonging to Laurean's sister-in-law, which Laurean's wife was using to communicate with Laurean while he was on the run. Laurean apparently told his wife in e-mails that he wanted to return to the United States, the official said. Authorities also seized the wife's diary. "It's clear she's still deeply in love with him and she is vacillating between loving him and being angry at him for not being faithful to her," the official said. "It's not necessarily illegal for a wife to talk to her husband, but if she had tried to help him in any way, there would have been a problem." |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 Mexico's extradition policy prohibits U.S. authorities from seeking the death penalty against fugitives who are turned over by Mexican authorities. This policy makes Mexico a preferred destination for perpetrators of capital crimes especially if the perps are Mexicans themselves. Not only do they have a better chance of escaping punishment altogether, they know that they will never get the death penalty if they can just make it across the border. The downside, of course, would be that they could end up spending a considerable amount of time in one of Mexico's prisons. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2008-04-11 15:12 |