Yuma native sentenced to prison for murder
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Son. — An man identified as a Yuma native living in this border city has been sentenced to nearly four decades in a Mexican prison for the murder of a taxi driver last August.
A San Luis Rio Colorado judge on Wednesday sentenced Daniel Alvarez, 23, to 37 years and six months in prison, having found him guilty in the murder of taxi driver Felipe Neri. Judges, not juries, determine the guilt or innocence of defendants in criminal trials in Mexico.
San Luis Rio Colorado news media reported that Alvarez made no statements during sentencing, in contrast to previous hearings during which he told the court he didn’t understand Spanish and that he didn’t know why he had been arrested.
Alvarez attacked Neri with a knife after getting into the latter’s taxi on the city’s west side on Aug. 9, according to police in San Luis Rio Colorado.
Neri stopped the taxi at the side of the road, according to police, but Alvarez continued stabbing him, eventually leaving the driver bleeding in the vehicle.
Alvarez fled on foot, police said, but was found a block south of the attack later the same night. Police said that at the time of his arrest, he had in possession the knife used in the attack and blood-stained paper money, and that he had blood on his clothes.
Neri was rushed to a San Luis Rio Colorado hospital where he died.
Police said Alvarez was a Yuma native who was living in San Luis Rio Colorado at the time of the murder.