"Fugitive arrested in 2012 killing of Army veteran" by Evan Allen, Globe Staff January 17, 2015
Nearly three years after he allegedly shot Army veteran Stephen Perez Jr. outside a nightclub in downtown Boston and fled the country, Peter Castillo arrived back in the United States on Saturday, two days after he was apprehended in the Dominican Republic, according to a statement from the US Marshals Service.
Castillo was transported to New York on Saturday morning, and was being held there as a fugitive from justice on a Suffolk County indictment charging him with first-degree murder and unlawful possession of a firearm, officials said.
“He’s the definition of a coward,” said Jeremiah Goodwin Jr., an East Boston resident who was best friends with Perez, 22. “He took the life of a man who was destined to do great things. He’d already done great things.”
Perez had served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a sniper, and came home to Revere determined to become a federal law enforcement officer. He was studying at Bunker Hill Community College and was planning to transfer to Boston University, his friends and family said. They said he had wanted to serve in the Army since childhood.
Guys are all over the place right now.
Castillo allegedly shot Perez in the back on May 10, 2012, after an altercation in Boston’s Theater District. He was quickly identified as the suspected shooter by Boston police.
After the shooting, Castillo fled to New York and then the Dominican Republic, where he has extensive ties, according to the US Marshals statement.
“Castillo’s capture should send a strong, clear message to anyone who cruelly and callously takes the life of another in our city that, although you can certainly run and attempt to hide,’’ said Boston Police Commissioner William Evans in the statement, his department’s “investigators, working hand in hand with our federal partners, will ultimately run you down, find you, and bring you to justice.”
Castillo has been on the federal agency’s “15 Most Wanted” fugitive list since October.
The manhunt for him gained momentum when US marshals learned Castillo was possibly staying in a home in Santo Domingo, according to the statement. Marshals forwarded the information to the country’s Direccion Nacional Control de Drogas Fugitive Task Force, according to the statement. When local authorities arrived at the address Thursday, Castillo was there, but he fled and attempted to hide nearby before being found and arrested.
“Countless hours of collaborative investigative work by the agencies involved and sheer determination have finally brought Castillo to justice,” said John Gibbons, US marshal for the District of Massachusetts, who thanked local authorities as well as Interpol Washington for issuing “the red notice that helped facilitate the arrest.”
Castillo will likely be arraigned in Boston this week, said Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. It will be a moment that Perez’s “family, his friends, and his fellow veterans have awaited for too long,” said Conley in the statement.
Perez’s family declined to comment.
Goodwin said that when he heard the news about Castillo’s capture, he was overwhelmed with emotion.
“My heart’s still racing,” he said. “I’ve got a one-track mind right now. It’s very good. I feel great. I am ecstatic right now.”
The two men met as freshmen in high school, and Goodwin said Perez would always “stick up for the little guy.” He recalled one incident when his friend saved a cab driver from being beaten up.
“He was all about doing the right thing,” said Goodwin. “That kid was just the most outstanding human being on the face of the planet.”
Two associates of Castillo were charged in June 2012 with perjury and misleading investigators working on Perez’s killing, according to Jake Wark, a spokesman for Conley. In a statement released in June 2012, prosecutors alleged that Luis Sepelveda, 30, and Janice Hardy, 24, had lied to investigators and then repeated those lies in sworn testimony before a Suffolk County grand jury.
“They are not accused of taking part in the homicide; they are accused of allegedly trying to stymie the investigation,” said Wark. They are due back in court later this month for pretrial dates, he said.
--more--"
UPDATE: Salem man is charged in 2012 murder
