Fugitive found hiding in Caribbean decades after killing man in Alaska, officials say
A man spent nearly three decades living under different identities in the Caribbean after fleeing Alaska in the wake of a shooting that left an 18-year-old dead, prosecutors said.
But Ruben Fernandez, 50, is now back in the United States and was sentenced by an Alaska judge on Jan. 30 to spend 20 years behind bars in connection with the fatal 1995 shooting of David Burdette, prosecutors said. Fernandez pleaded guilty in August 2024 to second-degree murder, the Alaska Department of Law said in a news release.
The U.S. Marshals Service arrested him in 2022 after tracking him to the town of La Cuesta, according to the agency.
In an email Feb. 4 to McClatchy News, Fernandez’s attorney said her client had no comment.
Fernandez, a U.S. citizen, is accused of shooting Burdette on May 20, 1995, outside an Anchorage fast food restaurant, according to prosecutors.
Fernandez was 21 years old at the time, court records show.
He and Burdette got into a verbal fight, and Fernandez shot Burdette in the head as Burdette walked away, prosecutors said.
After Burdette was on the ground, Fernandez shot him in the chest and “continued to shoot out the window of a vehicle” while leaving the scene, prosecutors said.
Fernandez used four different identities after fleeing to the Dominican Republic, an island nation next to Haiti, the marshals service said. The identities led marshals to La Cuesta, the agency said.
The Anchorage Police Department spent 27 years investigating and working to find Fernandez with help from the marshals service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, prosecutors said.
This story was originally published February 4, 2025 at 5:32 PM with the headline "Fugitive found hiding in Caribbean decades after killing man in Alaska, officials say."
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