Convicted killer who escaped California custody recaptured in Mexico

A convicted Los Angeles County murderer who escaped from custody in California and then fled to Mexico — where he allegedly shot and killed a police officer who was trying to apprehend him — was arrested in Tijuana this week, Mexican authorities said.

The Attorney General‘s Office of the State of Baja California announced that Cesar Hernandez, 35, was captured on Thursday in a special operation dubbed “Gacela,” meaning gazelle. He was wanted in Mexico in connection with the April 9 shooting death of Mexican police commander Abigail Esparza Reyes, which took place during an attempt to arrest him in Tijuana.

Reyes was a member of a specialized investigative unit known as “Gringo Hunters,” which works to apprehend fugitives who have fled to Mexico from the U.S., according to reporting from Reuters. Authorities told the wire service that Reyes had led the unit’s regional team for eight years and carried out more than 400 operations.

“Abigail’s life will be honored, and her death will not go unpunished,” Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda said in Spanish in a statement on social media earlier this month.

In 2019, Hernandez was sentenced to 80 years to life for killing a man outside of a bar in Southeast Los Angeles, a second-strike offense, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Hernandez escaped custody in December while he was being transported to an appearance at Kern County Superior Court in Delano, according to CDCR. After arriving at the courthouse, he jumped out of the van, evaded staff and fled the area on foot.

Despite the significant law enforcement effort to capture him, he made it to Mexico.

Hernandez “had been on the run from justice in both Mexico and the U.S., making him a top priority for law enforcement” the Baja California Attorney General’s Office said in a statement in Spanish.

“In Baja California, if you break the law, there are consequences,” the statement concluded.

Authorities have not yet announced whether Hernandez will be prosecuted in Mexico or California.

According to the CDCR, 99% of offenders who have left an institution, camp or community-based program without permission since 1977 have been apprehended.