Murder suspect featured on America’s Most Wanted spent 20 years on the run. Turns out he was working as a cop
A suspect featured on “America’s Most Wanted” for a fatal shooting outside a bar in Ohio 20 years ago was arrested in Mexico where he had been working as a police officer.
Antonio “El Diablo” Riano, 62, pleaded not guilty in Butler County Court on Monday to murder charges in the death of 25-year-old Benjamin Becarra, who was shot outside the Roadhouse Bar in Hamilton, Ohio, in December 2004, the U.S. Marshals Service and Butler County Prosecutor’s Office announced.
Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Oster Jr. ordered no bond for Riano, who will remain at Butler County Jail.
The Mexican national, who was profiled on the “America’s Most Wanted” TV series in 2005, was taken into custody on August 1, after being located in his hometown of Zapotitlán Palmas, State of Oaxaca, Mexico, where he had been working as a local cop.
Weeks before the fatal shooting in 2004, Riano was involved in a brawl at the same bar, WXIX reported, referring to an interview with the prosecutor’s chief investigator Paul Newton.
When he returned to the bar on December 19, 2004, the bartender asked him to leave. Instead, he tried to step in to help the bartender and an argument broke out between Riano and Becerra. The bartender told the two men to take it outside and moments after doing so, Becerra was shot in the face. He was found lying face down on the sidewalk and Riano had fled the scene.
Riano was identified as the suspected shooter with the help of witnesses and surveillance camera footage at the bar.
The gun used in the shooting was found 10 days later, hidden in a secret compartment under the kitchen floor in Riano’s Hamilton home.
On February 16, 2005, Riano was indicted on first-degree murder, but he failed to appear at his scheduled arraignment and was nowhere to be found.
“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,” Michael T. Gmoser, Butler County Prosecutor said following the arrest.
Riano is expected back in court on August 12.
