A Ventura County man was sentenced to life in prison for the double murder of his estranged wife and her boyfriend in 1993.
Everardo Meza Alamillo, 54, from Santa Paula, was found guilty by a jury on May 2, 2023, of two first-degree murder counts for victims Adriana Meza, and her boyfriend, Armando Cauich Jr.
He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life without the possibility of parole plus 10 years in prison, according to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.
On Oct. 13, 1993, Alamillo went to visit his 2-year-old daughter at Meza’s home. She allowed the visit because she wanted Alamillo to be a part of their daughter’s life, officials said.
Alamillo left and returned to her home later that night. He parked his car nearby while waiting with a loaded .22-caliber rifle. He then entered the home through a back door and walked into Meza’s bedroom.
That’s when Alamillo shot Meza three times and her boyfriend, Cauich Jr., twice as they were lying in bed. Alamillo’s young daughter was asleep between the victims when they were killed.
Alamillo fled the country immediately after the murders, authorities said. Although he was indicted in 1994 on two counts of murder, he would not be arrested until Nov. 2015 after authorities tracked him down in Mexico. He was extradited to the U.S. in July 2016 to stand trial.
“I am so grateful to the Santa Paula Police Department, the District Attorney’s Office Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI for investigating the case and never giving up on locating the defendant so that he could be held accountable for these two tragic murders,” Senior Deputy District Attorney John Barrick, who prosecuted the case. “The Castanon and Cauich families have waited 30 agonizing years for this day. Now they can hopefully rest a little easier knowing that the man who has brought them so much pain will never be released from prison.”