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Raymond "RJ" McLeod, a U.S. Marshals’ Top 15 Most Wanted murder suspect captured earlier this week teaching English in El Salvador, stood before a San Diego judge for his arraignment Friday morning.
McLeod, 37, is accused of brutally killing his then-girlfriend, Krystal Mitchell, 30, in the California city in June 2016, then fleeing the country.
"Four years and four months ago we stood in this very room, and we promised to never give up on bringing the killer to justice," San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan said a news briefing after the hearing. "This week this defendant's brazen attempt to evade justice was over"
A witness saw McLeod slap Mitchell in the face at a bar in the early hours of June 10, 2016, Stephan said. The good Samaritan tried to intervene, and the couple left. A short time later, a surveillance camera in their friends' nearby apartment building recorded him allegedly closing his hand around Mitchell's throat in an elevator.
Raymond "RJ" McLeod, the former fugitive accused of murdering his girlfriend Krystal Mitchell in San Diego in 2016, pictured here teaching a class in El Salvador, where he was allegedly laying low as an English instructor while on the U.S. Marshals' Top 15 Most Wanted List until his capture Monday. (Josephine Wentzel)
Police received a 911 call 11 hours later and found Mitchell's body dead in the apartment. Her death was ruled a homicide by strangulation, Stephan said.
"This strangulation was so violent that there were three separate fractures to her voice box," Stephan said. "McLeod then took her car, parked it at the airport, rented a car and went to Mexico."
Deputy Marshal Joseph O’Callaghan said an anonymous tipster told authorities that someone resembling McLeod was working as an English teacher at a school in Sonsonate, El Salvador – about 40 miles west of the country’s capital.
Marshals flank RJ McLeod after his arrest in Sonsonate, El Salvador, on Monday, Aug. 29, 2022. (US Marshals)
Deputy Marshal Francisco Barajas vetted the tip and coordinated an investigation with local authorities, O'Callaghan said. They staked out the school, identified the suspect and captured him in the classroom, where he was using the alias "Jack Donovan."
"Francisco never stopped," he said. "He stayed on this case night and day, and while there are other families we are always trying to help, this was at the forefront at all times."
Because McLeod was illegally in El Salvador, the process of returning him to the U.S. went quickly, he added. Salvadoran police transported him to San Salvador, the country’s capital, where he was processed by Interpol and immigration officials, then deported.
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He arrived in Los Angeles by plane Tuesday.
McLeod is believed to have been hiding in Sonsonate for about two and a half years, according to investigators.
McLeod was the first ever suspect to be named to the Marshals Top 15 Most Wanted List with a beginning bounty of $50,000, according to authorities. The anonymous tipster is expected to receive payment, but officials gave few other details.
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Josephine Wentzel and her daughter Krystal Mitchell in an undated photo. (Courtesy of Josephine Wentzel)
Mitchell’s mother, former police detective Josephine Wentzel, came out of retirement to help track down her daughter’s killer. She told Fox News Digital earlier this week that McLeod had been laying low in the Colonia Angelica neighborhood of Sonsonate, described by locals as "kind of dangerous."
McLeod, a former Marine, was reputed to be a "heavy drinker" and had a history of domestic violence before Mitchell’s slaying, according to authorities. He was considered armed and dangerous and also had a background as a bodybuilder.
While hiding out in El Salvador during the coronavirus pandemic, he drank less, returned to the gym and was a frequent sighting at the local soccer stadium, Wentzel told Fox News Digital Thursday. He had no car and was often seen walking around Sonsonate.
At the Friday news briefing, she said that as part of the investigation, she met a woman in Guatemala who accused McLeod of badly beating her neighbor's daughter and that she found evidence he may have beaten another woman in Belize.
"And he was suspected, only suspected, of killing a hostel owner, an old man who was found dead in the bottom of a swimming pool," she said. "So yea, he's very dangerous."
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Stephan said additional details about McLeod’s capture could not immediately be released but that they would be released in court as proceedings move forward.
He faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted and is due back in court on Jan. 26.
A judge ordered him held without bail.
Fox News’ Jenna Miller and Kelly Skehen contributed to this report.
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