(February 20, 2008)

For more than 3 1/2 years he'd been on the run. He was just 19 years old, a former marine, when police say he committed a brutal murder. But Wednesday, John Henry Ramirez, now 23, was captured in Brownsville by U.S. Marshals.

He was one of three suspects in the 2004 stabbing death of a times market store clerk. Police say 42 year old Pablo Castro was the victim of a robbery that netted John Henry Ramirez just $1.25.

Ramirez's alleged two female accomplises were captured early on and convicted for their role in the crime. 24 year old Christina Chavez was sentenced to 25 years in prison and 31 year old Angela Cruz Rodriguez plead guilty to murder and received a life sentence.

But, for whatever reason Ramirez managed to elude authorities. They believe the night of Castro's death Ramirez fled to Mexico.

"The Marshal's Service which is the oldest federal law enforcement agency has a slogan, 'you can run, but you can't hide,' and that stands very true here. They can run, but they can not hide we will not let them," says Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Carlos Treviso.

The U.S. Marshal's Fugitive Task Force captured Corpus Christi's most notorious capital murder suspect Wednesday afternoon in Brownsville. He was said to be in a rural house in Cameron County.

How a man, on the run, who had a $50,000 bounty on his head got by all these years is still under investigation.

Corpus Christi Police Chief Bryan Smith and others held a media briefing and say it was thanks to joint cooperation between local and federal agencies that led to the arrest. "We all came together, because we're cops and this is what we do, said Chief Smith.

"It's been a difficult effort, the real heroes are not here today, those are the street investigators, the deputy marshal's, the FBI agents that were involved. They're with the prisoner right now. You're talking to the bosses, but the real heroes are out on the street still doing their job," said FBI Supervisor Albert Holl.

John Henry Ramrirez is no longer a fugitive, but now a Nueces County inmate, awaiting trial for capital murder.

"As I walked in from lunch, I was given the good news that John Henry Ramirez is in custody, and on his way to Nueces County to face the justice that he deserves," says Nueces County District Attorney Carlos Valdez.

The DA's office said early on this is a death penalty case, whether prosecutors will seek it depends on the outcome of a Supreme Court decision on the legality of lethal injection.