Wanted child killer caught in Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - After four years on the run and several appearances on America's Most Wanted , an infamous killer who escaped from jail is back behind bars.

U.S. Marshals say Edward Salas, who shot and killed a young boy in his sleep, has been captured in Mexico.

It was a murder that shook up a lot of people around the state and the idea that one of the killers managed to escape and then vanish for so long, haunted police and prosecutors.  But not any longer.

Salas and a group of other men fired nine bullets through a window into a Clovis home back in 2005.

10-year-old Carlos Perez was killed while sleeping in his bed on the night before his 11th birthday.

Police think his older brother was the intended target.

Salas was convicted and sentenced to 56 years, but escaped from the county jail in Clovis in 2008 by breaking into a closet, climbing up a pipe and cutting a hole in the ceiling.

Sources had told News 13 that they had information indicating that Salas was hiding in Mexico.

On Thursday he was arrested about 230 miles south of Mexico in Chihuahua City. 

U.S. Marshal Conrad Candelaria says he believes Salas had help from family and friends in hiding, but he can't say much more about the manhunt right now.

"It's a profound moment I think for the Marshal Service for the district of New Mexico, most importantly I think for the family. Long awaited justice needs to prevail because of the boy that was tragically taken from a family," Candelaria said.

Governor Susana Martinez is at a Border Governors conference right now in Albuquerque along with Chihuahua's governor.  Her office says she has been keeping him in the loop on the manhunt.

Candelaria says it could take a couple of months to get Salas back to New Mexico.

Earlier this year officers captured Noe Torres in Mexico , another fugitive from the Carlos Perez murder who had been on the run.