Investigators from the Santa Barbara Police Department recently received notification from the Mexican Attorney General’s Office (Procuraduria General de la Republica) that on Sept. 30, 2014, the Ninth District Judge in Nezahualcoyotl, State of Mexico, sentenced Pedro Alonso Bravo to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of murder.
Bravo did not appeal the decision and is serving his sentence in Mexico.
The Mexican Penal Code allows for Mexican citizens who allegedly commit crimes in foreign countries and then flee to Mexico to be arrested and prosecuted there. This procedure is often utilized in cases where the suspect may face the death penalty in the country where the crime occurred.
On Sept. 30, 1988, at 11:20 p.m., 24-year old Bernardo Santos Sierra was murdered by Pedro Alonso Bravo, then 33 years old, in front of Bravo’s residence at 1305 Punta Gorda St. Sierra was shot multiple times with a handgun. Following the incident, Bravo, a Mexican citizen, fled to Mexico where he remained a fugitive from justice.
Following a collaborative effort by the Santa Barbara Police Department, the California Department of Justice and the Mexican Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR), Bravo was arrested on March 8, 2013, for this murder in Mexico and is currently in custody in Mexico City.
Chief of Police Camerino Sanchez, accompanied by members of the Sierra family, will be holding a press conference at 10 a.m. Thursday, April 11 in the Murphy Room of the Santa Barbara Police Department, 215 E. Figueroa St., to discuss the details of this case.
— Sgt. Riley Harwood is a public information officer for the Santa Barbara Police Department.