Man Suspected in 2018 Double Murder& Related Violent Crimes Arrested in Mexico, Extradited to Los Angeles County
A man wanted for his alleged involvement in the 2018 murder of his pregnant wife in the city of El Monte was extradited from Mexico to Los Angeles last Friday, announced Paul Delacourt, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office and Alex Villanueva, the Sheriff of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Octavio Curiel-Martinez, 37, a Mexican national, is suspected in the murders and related violent crimes.
The victims, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds, were discovered at an El Monte residence on August 29, 2018, and were pronounced dead at a hospital later that evening. Based on an investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) and the El Monte Police Department,Curiel-Martinez was charged in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles,with murder (two counts); attempted murder; assault with a firearm (two counts); shooting at an inhabited dwelling or occupied car; corporal injury to spouse (two counts); assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury; felony child endangerment (two counts); and misdemeanor child endangerment (six counts). A state warrant was issued for his arrest on September 5, 2018.
LASD detectives assigned to the case identified Curiel-Martinez as a suspect following the murders and determined that he fled the state of California to Mexico. Investigators and prosecutors later enlisted the assistance of the FBI to locate and apprehend Curiel-Martinez.A federal arrest warrant was issued by the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Los Angeles, on March 15, 2019, after Martinez was charged federally with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution(UFAP). Curiel-Martinez was located based on information provided by U.S. investigators and arrested by Mexican police officers on unrelated local charges in Bolanos, Jalisco, Mexico May 17, 2019.
