Insets: Juan Marquez (Tustin Police Department) and Sandra Fernandez (GoFundMe).
A California man waited for his ex-girlfriend to walk out of her workplace, shot her dead in the street and fled the country only to be arrested upon his return, authorities say.
Juan Marquez, 47, faces a murder charge in the death of 42-year-old Sandra Fernandez in Tustin, which is just outside of Anaheim in Southern California.
Cops responded shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday to a shooting in the area of Yorba Street and Medford Avenue. They found an unresponsive Fernandez on the curb suffering from gunshot wounds. Paramedics pronounced her dead.
Witnesses told cops they saw a man wearing all black fleeing the scene and driving away in a dark-colored, older-model sedan. Investigators identified Marquez as the shooter and said he “laid in wait near Sandra”s workplace.” He allegedly killed her as she walked to her car.
After the shooting, he fled across the U.S.-Mexico border at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, per cops.
Police obtained an arrest warrant on Saturday and U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested Marquez upon his return to the country. He is now being held in the Orange County Jail without bond.
Authorities have yet to divulge a motive for the shooting. A future court date was not immediately available.
Local CW affiliate KTLA reported Fernandez was a mother of three who was starting a new job and was leaving a training session when she was killed.
“Even though it was just under a month, she already was making good relationships and having a great impact, so this is really a tragedy,” co-worker Cassie Rossel told the outlet.
Her family started a GoFundMe to raise money for a funeral. The fundraiser said her kids were ages 5 and 14, and she also had an adult son who is in college.
“No one deserves to leave there family the way she went. Words won’t describe what our family is feeling and going through right now,” the description said.
