A man from Santa Paula was convicted of two first-degree murder counts on Tuesday for the 1993 murders of his estranged wife and her boyfriend.
According to a report from the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, Everardo Meza Alamillo visited his estranged wife Adriana Meza’s house in Santa Paula on Oct. 13, 1993, because she wanted Alamillo to be a part of their daughter’s life.
Alamillo left the house and then returned later that evening armed with a .22-caliber rifle. He entered Meza’s house through a back door and walked into her bedroom, killing her and her boyfriend, Armando Cauich, Jr., while they were lying in bed, authorities said.
Alamillo and Meza’s two-year-old daughter was asleep between the two victims when they were killed, the DA’s office said.
Immediately after the murders, Alamillo fled the country, and although he was indicted in 1994 on two counts of murder, he would not be arrested until Nov. 2015 after being located in Mexico. He was later extradited to the U.S. in July 2016 to stand trial.
“For almost 30 years, [the families of Adriana and Armando] have lived with the pain and burden of knowing that the man who murdered their loved ones had eluded justice,” said Senior Deputy District Attorney John Barrick, who prosecuted the case. “That all ended today.”
Alamillo is scheduled to be sentenced on June 16.