Three eyewitnesses allegedly saw Ramiro Blanco, 46, fight with his friend in a West Side Chicago apartment in July 1983, pull a .38-caliber revolver from his waistband and shoot the man twice in the head.
But Blanco, then 28, fled to Texas and stayed there for the better part of two decades, said Cook County prosecutors.
On Friday, Blanco stood before a judge in Criminal Court in Chicago to face a first-degree murder charge for the shooting death of Richard Moltalvo, 21. Judge Neil Linehan ordered Blanco held in lieu of $200,000 bond.
Assistant State’s Atty. Leanna Rajk said Friday the two men had fought over a female friend of Moltalvo’s.
“He was identified in a photograph by witnesses in 1983, but he was never located,” Rajk said of Blanco. “An arrest warrant was approved, but he remained at large.”
Authorities said Blanco, who had been living in Havana, Texas, under the last name Rodriguez, got married, worked as a carpenter and stayed clear of authorities until being arrested on marijuana charges in 1999. Texas authorities said he failed to appear in court but was arrested again late last fall on domestic violence charges.
He was convicted of the drug charge this year and sentenced to prison, said Capt. Roy Quintanilha of the Hidalgo County sheriff’s office.
During processing, his background was scrutinized, and he offered the alias “Blanco” to authorities, Quintanilha said, leading to the computer hit on the Illinois warrant.
Cook County authorities said they took custody of Blanco on Wednesday.
Rajk said police reports from the Chicago killing had been preserved. Authorities also have started to track down witnesses in the case.
Prosecutors said Blanco has confessed on videotape to shooting Moltalvo.
