MEXICO CITY — A ruling on extraditing a woman who is on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted fugitives list for the killing of her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend in Texas could come anywhere from two to 12 months from now, a Mexican official said Saturday.
The federal official, who was not authorized to be named discussing the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States has a 60-day window to formally request the extradition of Brenda Delgado, who was captured by Mexican agents in the city of Torreon, in the northern state of Coahuila.
At that point the process that could be as quick as two months if she does not challenge extradition, or up to a year if she does.
Delgado, 33, was being held at a Mexico City prison, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office said Friday. She faces charges of capital murder and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution in connection with the September death of Dr. Kendra Hatcher, a dentist.
Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk told Dallas-Fort Worth television station KTVT that an extradition agreement between Mexico and the U.S. requires that the death penalty not be allowed. Hawk said Delgado faces life in prison, if convicted.
Hatcher, 35, was gunned down in the parking garage of her Dallas apartment complex. Prosecutors allege that Delgado hired two accomplices — one of them the gunman — to carry out the hit. Both alleged accomplices are in custody.
Delgado told one of them she was connected with a cartel and could provide him with a steady source of drugs if he carried out the killing, according to an FBI statement.
“He thought he had an in with the cartel,” Dallas police Detective Lee Thompson said, according to the statement.
It’s believed that Delgado fled the country shortly after Dallas investigators questioned her about the killing, federal authorities said.
Investigators say Delgado was jealous because Hatcher was dating her ex-boyfriend and had recently been introduced to his parents.
The boyfriend had dated Delgado for about two years before his relationship with Hatcher.
The FBI has named more than 500 people to the agency’s most-wanted list since it was established in 1950. Delgado, who is a Mexican citizen, is just the ninth woman to make the list.
It was only Wednesday when the FBI announced that she had been added to the list, calling her a “master manipulator.” A reward of $100,000 was offered for her capture, but it wasn’t clear whether it will be paid based on a tip.
The Mexican government said that after it received a capture request from U.S. authorities, its Agency of Criminal Investigation deployed teams to look for Delgado in places where she had family or relatives that could have helped her: in the states of San Luis Potosi, Nuevo Leon and Mexico, as well as in Mexico City.
Captura @PGR_AIC con fines de extradición a mujer prófuga de la justicia de los EUA. https://t.co/3aNKLxs7LT pic.twitter.com/WQR2ie5p6A
— AIC (@PGR_AIC) April 9, 2016
The Attorney General’s Office said she was tracked down in Torreon, which is about 190 miles (300 kilometers) west of Nuevo Leon state, with unspecified cooperation from U.S. authorities.
Delgado was located at a private home on a narrow residential street of blocky, one- and two-story homes that invariably have bars on windows and gates.
Agency officers attached to Interpol took her to the Santa Marta Acatitla prison in the Mexican capital.
Mexico has extradited a number of its citizens to the United States over the years, notably including top drug cartel leaders. Notorious Sinaloa cartel capo Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, for one, is currently battling his own extradition in the courts.
Capital punishment has been abolished in Mexico, and the country seeks assurances that suspects will not face the death penalty in the U.S. before agreeing to send them there.
PETER ORSI
