☛ TS Second of three suspects in 1998 homicide arrested 11/07/07
Chris Durant The Times-Standard
Posted: 11/07/2007 01:16:28 AM PST
A drunken driving arrest in Stanislaus County led authorities to the final suspect in the 1998 killing of a Eureka teenager outside a video store.
The Eureka Police Department said the California Highway Patrol pulled over and arrested a man on Oct. 28 who identified himself as Alejandro Contreras.
When his fingerprints came back, the man's real identity was revealed to be Yohan Perez Lopez, who is suspected in the shooting death of Ryan Matthew Dunn,18, in January 1998.
Lopez made bail before his real identity was revealed, but when he went to pick up his car from impound, he was arrested on suspicion of murder.
Eureka Police Sgt. Patrick O'Neill said Tuesday that Dunn was in a video store with his mother and girlfriend when the three men tried to pick a fight with him. The three men left and when Dunn exited the store thinking they were gone, at least one of the men allegedly opened fire on him.
The three men took off in a car that was discovered abandoned in the same neighborhood. Santiago Lopez, brother of Yohan Lopez, was arrested at a family member's home in Redwood City in January 1998.
Santiago Lopez was tried and convicted of being an accessory to murder and was sentenced to two years in prison.
The brothers' cousin and third suspect, Efren Erix Degladillo, is believed to have died in a car fire in Mexico in the last few years.
Yohan Lopez is in the Stanislaus County Jail on a FBI hold.
”As soon as that's lifted he'll be brought back for his trial,” O'Neill said.
Humboldt County Superior Court also issued a $1 million murder warrant for him.
Chris Durant can be reached at 441-0506 or at cdurant@times-standard.com .
Related:
☛ TS Witness testimony concludes in 1998 murder trial 2/19/09
☛ TS Witness testimony begins today for defense of murder suspect 2/18/09
☛ TS Testimony continues in Day 4 of Lopez 2/12/09
☛ TS Suspect's ex-girlfriend testifies in day three of murder trial 2/12//09
☛ TS Victim's girlfriend testifies in second day of 1998 murder trial 2/11/09
☛ TS Trial begins in decade-old murder case 2/10/09
☛ TS Homicide suspect facing trial for killing teen 12/21/07
☛ TS Suspect in 1998 shooting returned to Humboldt County
☛ TS Second of three suspects in 1998 homicide arrested 11/07/07
☛ TS 2007: The year in review
