No bond for man who fled to Mexico for 20 years while wanted in a Hamilton homicide

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Aug. 5—A man indicted nearly 20 years ago on charges stemming from a deadly shooting at a Hamilton bar who was found in Mexico will be held without bond, a Butler County Common Pleas Court judge ruled Monday.

The U.S. Marshals Service and Butler County Prosecutor's Office announced Thursday that Antonio Riano was found in his hometown of Zapotitlan Palmas in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. He is charged in the Dec. 19, 2004 death of 25-year-old Benjamin Becarra.

Riano, 62, was listed as one of the Butler County Sheriff's Office's "Most Wanted" and was profiled in 2005 on the "America's Most Wanted" television series.

Butler County Prosecutor's investigator Paul Newton teamed with the marshals service and U.S. Department of Justice's Office of International Affairs, which worked with law enforcement partners in Mexico, to secure the arrest and extradition of Riano. When Riano was arrested in Mexico, he was working as a local police officer.

Riano is scheduled to be back in court Aug 12. His court-appointed attorney for arraignment, Gerald Wirsch, entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

If convicted, Riano faces a maximum of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 18 years.

Stephanie Richardson, Becarra's girlfriend when he was murdered, was emotional in court when she saw Riano for the first time.

"Twenty years is a long time for him to be on the run and working as a police officer in Mexico. I just don't understand how that could be," Richardson said. "I will be at the next hearing and the next hearing until he is found guilty."

Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser said Riano has been in custody in Mexico for about a year, but it took some time to achieve extradition. He is housed in the Butler County Jail.

Gmoser, who was not the prosecutor at the time of the crime, said Riano fled to Mexico before a grand jury indictment was handed down in February 2005.

According to court records, Becarra was shot in the head at a bar at East Avenue and Long Street. Witnesses identified the suspect as "El Diablo."

Through witnesses, a video from the bar and a search of a residence that turned up ammunition purchased 45 minutes prior to the shooting, detectives were about to identify Riano as the alleged shooting suspect, according to court records.

Police continued to follow leads in the U.S. for two years as to Riano's whereabouts before receiving information he had fled to Mexico.

The case was assigned to Judge Michael Sage in 2005 but will be heard Judge Michael Oster Jr., who ran for judgeship when Sage retired.

"This type of apprehension would not be possible without the cooperation and due diligence of both the prosecutor's office investigators, the United States Marshal Service, and the United States Department of Justice," Gmoser said.

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No bond for man who fled to Mexico for 20 years while wanted in a Hamilton homicide

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