Man suspected in Riverside homicide arrested in Mexico 19 years later
The suspect in a 2005 murder at a home in Riverside has been arrested in Mexico, nearly two decades after the crime was committed.
According to the Riverside Police Department, 50-year-old Luis Contreras was arrested by Mexican authorities in Mexicali on July 8, and has since been extradited back to Riverside County to face charges.
Contreras, who was 32 at the time, is the primary suspect in the June 14, 2005, killing of 38-year-old Alfonso Vera. Vera was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds inside a home on the 4700 block of Doane Avenue in Riverside.
Witnesses heard the shots and saw people running and two vehicles leaving the scene, police said. Those witnesses were able to provide a license plate number of one of the vehicles.
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Investigators later determined that a man was involved in an argument with his girlfriend and became physically violent with her. Vera came to the woman’s aid and intervened and was shot multiple times by another person.
Three suspects were believed involved in the case, two of which were apprehended weeks after Vera’s killing. But the gunman, who police said was Contreras, was never located, and it was believed that he fled to Mexico to avoid arrest.
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In June 2024, nearly two decades since the deadly shooting, detectives reopened the cold case and renewed the search for Contreras.
Within weeks, he was located and arrested by Mexican authorities in coordination with the U.S. Marshals Service. He’s since been brought back to the U.S. and was booked into the Cois M. Byrd Detention Center near Murrieta.
Now 50 years old, Contreras is awaiting trial on second-degree murder charges and is currently being held on $1 million bail, according to jail records.
He’s expected to appear in court on Aug. 2.
Of the two other men believed to be involved in the killing of Alfonso Vera, one served a three-year prison sentence for being an accessory to murder and the other was not charged due to a lack of evidence, police said.
Anyone with information about this investigation is urged to contact the Riverside Police Department’s Homicide Cold Case Unit by email or by calling 951-320-8000.
Earlier this month, a man suspected in an Orange County homicide that happened 18 years ago was arrested in Mexico and extradited back to the U.S. to face charges.
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