Suspect in ’99 Killing Arrested in Mexico
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From Times Staff Reports
A man suspected of fatally shooting a visitor to a holiday lights display in Woodland Hills more than four years ago has been arrested on a first-degree murder charge in Mexico, a Los Angeles police detective said.
Police long suspected that ex-convict Carlos Alvaro Beltrani Merino, 36, had fled to his native Mexico after the 1999 Christmas evening slaying of Francisco Javier Hernandez, 24, a construction worker from Winnetka.
Hernandez was shot in front of his wife, young son and horrified onlookers in the Candy Cane Lane area of Woodland Hills.
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