A Mexican man has been arrested in Mexico as a suspect in a 20-year-old murder in Colorado.
Rafael Garcia Aguilar, 59, was taken into custody Thursday in Colima, Mexico, according to a news release from the office of Colorado Attorney General John Suthers.
Aguilar is a suspect in the July 4, 1989, shooting death of Charles “Chuck” Porter in Palisade, authorities said.
Suthers’ office, the Mexican Attorney General, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office and the Mesa County District Attorney’s Office worked together on the case and paperwork was filed in February 2008 to prosecute Aguilar.
“This is exactly the type of case that our office has worked with the Mexican authorities to solve and prosecute,” Suthers said in the release. “Through our partnership with the Mexican and Mesa County authorities, we were able to file charges in this decades-old cold case. We look forward to the Mexican authorities bringing justice to the victims of this crime.”
According to court documents filed in Mexico, Aguilar is suspected of shooting Porter in the head after an argument.
Just before the shooting, Aguilar barged into his ex-wife’s home near Palisade and found Porter there with her. After Porter and Aguilar exchanged words, Aguilar grabbed a shotgun from his car and shot Porter through the door of his ex-wife’s home, prosecutors say. Aguilar, according to court filings, made his ex-wife and two daughters look at Porter’s body before he left the crime scene.
Aguilar fled to his native Mexico, where he’s lived for nearly two decades, the release said.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
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