For Immediate Release:
March 9, 2022
Contact: Jerri Mares — (505) 321-4372
ALBUQUERQUE, NM — Today, Attorney General Hector Balderas and 5th Judicial District Attorney Dianna Luce announced that Jorge Rico-Ruvira has been returned to the United States to stand trial for the murder of Isela Sanchez, the mother of his son. Jorge Rico-Ruvira is alleged to have committed an Aggravated Battery against Isela Sanchez in October of 2019, and then in January of 2020 to have strangled Isela Sanchez to death. It is alleged that he then took their three-year-old son Osciel Rico to Mexico, leaving Isela Sanchez’s seven-year-old daughter alone in the house with Isela Sanchez’s body. An Amber Alert was issued for Osciel Rico.
“Rico-Ruvira will be brought back to face justice, and it took the successful collaboration of many entities and people to bring him back to the United States to answer for these alleged crimes,” said Attorney General Balderas. “My office now looks forward to working with the District Attorney to prove the criminal charges against Rico-Ruvira and bring justice to the family.”
The New Mexico Office of the Attorney General sought an international extradition on the case and obtained an extradition warrant. Jorge Rico-Ruvira was arrested in Mexico in October 2021 thanks to the efforts of multiple agencies, including the Roswell Police Department, the 5th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, the Office of International Affairs at the United States Department of Justice, the FBI, the U.S. Marshals, and Mexican law enforcement. He was returned to the United States to stand trial on Aggravated Battery Against A Household Member (Strangulation Or Suffocation), Abuse Of A Child, and First Degree Murder and has also been charged with the federal crime of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution in the United States District Court.
District Attorney Dianna Luce said, “We thank our partners in state and federal law enforcement for ensuring the Defendant will face justice in a New Mexico courtroom.”
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