A man who fled to El Salvador for 22 years after he killed a Gwinnett County businessman and father was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday.
Hector U. Garay, 53, was convicted last month in the 1996 homicide of Adalberto Salinas, AJC.com previously reported. Garay fled to his native country until 2017, when he was arrested while trying to enter Honduras, leading to his extradition to the United States.
RELATED: Man convicted of Gwinnett murder after hiding abroad for 22 years
“He basically took 24 years on the outside and lived a life that he really shouldn’t have been living,” judge Karen Beyers said in court, according to Channel 2 Action News.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Salinas and his wife Francisca were at their Gwinnett home on the night of Jan. 21, 1996, when they heard a knock on the door. When Adalberto Salinas answered the door, he was shot twice and killed.
Gwinnett police received a tip a few days later that Garay had tried to get another man to help him rob Salinas, who ran multiple businesses along Buford Highway, the Gwinnett District Attorney’s Office said. That man told police Garay had confessed to the homicide and planned to leave the country.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Francisca Salinas, who witnessed her husband’s death, died in 2007. In her place, the couple’s three daughters testified at trial about what their mother saw the night of the murder, the DA’s office said in a news release.
“Not a day goes by that he doesn’t cross our minds,” Maria Salinas said, according to Channel 2. “Over all these years we’ve endured a tremendous amount of pain and suffering.”
Garay testified in his own defense, arguing that he had been framed before saying he had “mental problems” and “the mind of a child” that allowed him to be “taken advantage of,” the DA’s office said.
The jury found Garay guilty of malice murder, felony murder, criminal attempt to commit armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony after a four-day trial.
Before Garay’s sentencing, attorney Scott Drake asked for leniency, Channel 2 reported.
“He fled after this time because he was afraid his family would be placed in jeopardy,” Drake said. “He was facing death threats.”
The judge sentenced Garay to a total sentence of life imprisonment plus a consecutive 35 years.
Because the homicide took place before Georgia’s murder penalty was amended, Garay was not eligible for life in prison without the possibility of parole, the DA’s office said.
“He did receive the maximum penalty allowed on each offense for which he was convicted,” the release concluded.
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