Accused rapist caught after 11 years on the run

The Mono County District Attorney’s Office announced this week that Jacinto Flores Xochimitl had successfully been arrested and booked in the Mono County Jail after 11 years on the run as an international fugitive.

In 2004, the Mammoth Lakes Police Department attempted to question Xochimitl, a citizen of Mexico, after he was accused of repeatedly and forcibly raping a child while she was between the ages of five and twelve. Xochimitl fled to Mexico the same day, avoiding the MLPD.

“We issued a warrant for his arrest with hopes that if he ever came back to the U.S., we’d get him,” Mono County District Attorney Tim Kendall told the Sheet on Wednesday.

According to Kendall, Xochimitl had been in the community for a while before the 2004 accusations, and had previously been involved with D.A. cases with drug-related charges.

In the latter part of 2008, the D.A.’s office learned of a more precise location of Xochimitl and began the extradition process through the Department of Homeland Security. Mexico and the U.S. have had an extradition treaty since 1980.

“There’s a lot of red tape as you can imagine, both with our government and the Mexican government. It was a very long process and it probably took about two years of paperwork before we were able to even go attempt to locate him,” Kendall said.

The FBI, with personnel and agents stationed in Mexico, officially located Xochimitl in 2012. In July of that year, Kendall’s office made a formal request with Homeland Security to extradite him from Mexico.

Interpol arrested Xochimitl in Puebla, Mexico on January 14, 2014, but he “fought the extradition so that took a while to clear up,” Kendall said. On September 19, 2014, the Government of Mexico approved the extradition and on January 6, 2015 the D.A. investigator, Frank Smith, traveled to Mexico to bring Xochimitl back to California with the help of the FBI.

Smith and Xochimitl landed in Sacramento late last Tuesday and Xochimitl was booked into the Mono County Jail early the next morning. He was arraigned on January 13 with charges that carry a 30 years to life sentence.

“This is the first time Mono County and the District Attorney’s office has actually sought somebody from Mexico or another country,” Kendall said. “It’s a huge deal.”