FUGITIVE
WANTED FOR COLD DOUBLE HOMICIDE
CASE ARRESTED IN MEXICO, RETURNED TO THE U.S. TODAY
A
man arrested in Mexico last month for his role in a seventeen-year
old double homicide in Los Angeles was turned over to members
of the FBI's Fugitive Task Force this afternoon, announced J.
Stephen Tidwell, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI in
Los Angeles. Reginald Milon Fields, 47, originally from Los
Angeles, was flown to LAX from Mexico City, under the escort
of FBI agents assigned to the FBI's Legal Attache stationed
in Mexico.
On 9/24/1990, Fields and an unknown accomplice allegedly entered
a Los Angeles residence and confronted two individuals, Jason
Combs and Leon Jefferson. Fields allegedly executed Combs, who
was 29 at the time, with eight close range shots, and shot Jefferson
in the shoulder. Jefferson, who was 64 at the time, bled to
death. Fields was on parole for a narcotics violation at the
time of the murders.
Investigators with the Los Angeles Police Department believe
that Fields fled to the Guadalajara, Mexico, region immediately
after the alleged crimes. Fields was charged with homicide but
had remained a fugitive for many years. In recent years, detectives
developed information indicating that Fields was still residing
in Mexico.
On
October 27, 2004, the FBI obtained a federal warrant after Fields
was charged with Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution in U.S.
District Court in Los Angeles. In recent months, Fields was
located in Bella Vista, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, where
he was residing with his wife and multiple children and using
the name Phillip Tatum. The United States requested assistance
from officers with the Agencia Federal de Investigaciones (AFI,
Mexican Federal Police) who took Fields into custody on 4/5/07.
Fields, a United States citizen, was formally extradited in
Mexico City federal court prior to his return to the United
States today.
The FBI's Fugitive Task Force in Los Angeles consists of agents
and officers with the FBI, the Los Angeles Police Department
and the California State Department of Parole, Division of Adult
Parole Operations.
It is anticipated that the government will dismiss the federal
UFAP charge and that Fields will remain in the custody of the
Los Angeles Police Department to face prosecution.