GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — A man who was set free after being tried for a Colorado murder in Mexico is facing prosecution for the crime again in the United States.
Sixty-seven-year-old Rafael Garcia, accused of killing a man involved with his ex-wife in 1989 in Palisade, was arrested in Denver on Monday after police found that he was still wanted for the killing.
The Daily Sentinel (http://bit.ly/2e3wXc7 ) reports that he was first captured twenty years after the killing in Mexico. Because of Mexico's hesitancy to extradite people to governments with the death penalty, prosecutors agreed to have Mexican authorities prosecute him but he wasn't convicted.
Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein says double jeopardy doesn't apply because Garcia's original case was heard in a completely separate jurisdiction.
The public defender's office declined to comment.
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Information from: The Daily Sentinel, http://www.gjsentinel.com
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