'Went underground': Why it took so long to arrest murder suspect working as cop in Mexico

Within days of 25-year-old Benjamin Becerra’s shooting death in broad daylight outside a Hamilton bar, authorities issued an arrest warrant for the suspect and learned that he was bound for Mexico.

It took almost 20 years before investigators located Antonio Riano, 62, and extradited him to Butler County to stand trial.

On Monday, Butler County Common Pleas Judge Michael Oster Jr. ordered that Riano be detained without bond until the conclusion of his criminal proceedings – a decision that came in response to a request from prosecutors.

While investigators had been searching for Riano for nearly two decades, they didn’t have any success until early this year. He was arrested by Mexican law enforcement in his hometown of Zapotitlan Palmas in Oaxaca, where he was working as a police officer.

What happened and what took so long for authorities to apprehend Riano?

‘Left in a hurry’

In December 2004, Hamilton police were called to the Roundhouse Bar and found Becerra had been shot once in the head, according to court filings.

After interviewing witnesses, investigators learned the suspect was commonly known as “El Diablo” and they later identified that person as Riano, a former Hamilton police detective wrote in an affidavit.

Prosecutors said surveillance video also showed Riano pull out a revolver and open fire on Becerra during an interaction between the two men outside the bar.

Police searched a house on East Avenue where Riano had parked his vehicle and found a box of ammunition matching the weapon used in the shooting.

“No one was at the house but the television was left on and the house appeared whoever was there left in a hurry,” the detective wrote.

Fake names, false documents

When police later searched Riano’s home, they learned he used several fake names and had papers to create false documentation to obtain different identifications. Prosecutors said Riano was in the country unlawfully at the time of the shooting.

A teacher at the elementary school Riano’s daughter attended told police they overheard the child’s mother say they were moving to New Jersey, where the family had lived previously.

Police contacted New Jersey authorities to help locate Riano, however, they were told by contacts there that he had just left the country.

Investigators said they interviewed the mother of Riano’s daughter, who said she’d fought with Riano the night before the shooting and had left him. She told police that a friend had driven him to Mexico.

Two years after the shooting, the owner of the East Avenue home found the revolver used to shoot Becerra under the floor of a bathroom closet, investigators said, adding that Riano bought ammo from a local Walmart less than an hour before the shooting.

Riano went ‘underground’

Despite evading police custody, a Butler County grand jury indicted Riano on a murder charge in February 2005. The Butler County Sheriff's Office long listed Riano as a wanted fugitive and the case was even profiled on Fox's "America's Most Wanted."

Paul Newtown, lead investigator with the Butler County Prosecutor’s Office, said authorities never stopped searching for Riano but his trail went cold for the better part of 20 years.

Newton said the U.S. Marshals Service became involved early on in the investigation and there was an attempt by marshals to arrest Riano in Mexico but they missed him.

“After he found out the U.S. Marshals were after him, he kind of went underground,” Newton said, adding that investigators lost track of Riano until the beginning of this year.

Newton was searching on social media for clues to Riano’s whereabouts when he stumbled upon Riano’s Facebook account, which included a recent video of him. That's also when investigators learned he was working as a police officer.

Prosecutors say they’re not sure what Riano was doing abroad before his employment in law enforcement.

“As far as we could have known, he could have been dead,” Newton said of the lengthy search for Riano. “If you pop your head up, you’re going to get snatched sometime or another.”

Riano ‘was not trying to hide,’ attorney says

While prosecutors painted Riano’s return to Mexico as an attempt to flee from justice, his attorney, Kara Blackney, said it’s not that cut and dry.

Riano is a Mexican citizen and returned to his country of origin before an indictment was filed in connection with Becerra’s killing, Blackney said.

“He was even a police officer for the past three and a half years in Mexico, which shows he was not trying to hide from anyone,” she said, adding that Riano has no other criminal history and still has family in Butler County, including a brother and three adult children.

Blackney also noted that the surveillance video capturing the incident doesn’t include audio.

“So there’s a lot still to wonder about what happened,” she said.

However, Riano’s arrest comes as a long-awaited relief for Becerra’s then-girlfriend, Stephanie Richardson.

“Twenty years is a long time for him to be on the run and working as a police officer in Mexico,” Richardson said after an arraignment earlier this month. “I just don’t understand how that could be.”

Riano is set to return to court on Sept. 16 for a plea or trial setting.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How authorities found suspect in 2004 killing working as cop in Mexico