Ex-brunswick man pleads guilty to murder
He evaded homicide detectives for nearly 45 years following killing
A former Brunswick man who evaded homicide detectives for nearly 45 years has pleaded guilty to killing another man while they both were in the military, the San Diego district attorney’s office spokeswoman said Thursday.
Dennis Lepage, 64, pleaded guilty Wednesday to seconddegree murder a week before he was slated to go on trial in San Diego Superior Court for the 1975 killing of Alvaro Marquez Espeleta, a dental technician assigned to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, according to court records. Lepage was in the Navy at the time.
Lepage was held without bail on a charge of first-degree murder since he was brought back from Rensselaer County in 2020. Details of Lepage’s plea were not immediately available, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office said. Lepage is to be sentenced July 30.
He was finally captured after his fingerprints were taken during a 2010 violation of a Massachusetts restraining order and linked to the Espeleta homicide case evidence. He was arrested on Jan. 24, 2020, by FBI agents and State Police on a fugitive from justice warrant in Brunswick. Lepage was returned to San Diego after a May 29, 2020, hearing in Rensselaer County Court.
His fingerprint record allowed San Diego detectives to crack the cold case murder mystery and track him to Brunswick where he most recently was living.
Espeleta was found dead Dec. 31, 1975, in his apartment on Reynard Way in San Diego. Two of Espeleta’s co-workers went to his home to check on him when he did not show up for work and discovered his body. Lepage was 18 when Espeleta was killed.
Investigators and prosecutors have not revealed how Espeleta and Lepage knew each other.