After decades on the run, man accused in 1998 killing is charged, CA officials say
After finishing up work at his popular California taqueria on June 13, 1998, Felipe Arambula headed home, where he found a startling scene, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Two men were waiting inside his Ventura home “with his terror-stricken wife and their two children,” Ventura Police Sgt. Bob Anderson told the Los Angeles Times in 1998.
A chaotic scene erupted, as a “particularly violent” fight traveled throughout the home, authorities said, the newspaper reported.
Arambula was ultimately shot and killed, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office said in an April 22 news release.
While two of the men accused in connection with his killing were tried and convicted, one of the men Arambula found inside his home the day he died eluded authorities for decades, prosecutors said.
Now, nearly three decades after Arambula’s death, Manuel Alejandro Vasquez, 47, was extradited from Mexico to face multiple felony charges in the 1998 killing.
After an investigation into Arambula’s killing, Ventura police detectives identified Manuel Vasquez and David Hampton as suspects, according to prosecutors.
Investigators learned the pair were hired by another man, Jose Vazquez, “to kidnap and extort money from Arambula over an alleged unpaid debt,” prosecutors said.
Jose Vazquez co-owned a local poker club with his wife, who knew Arambula, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“We believe that at some time or another he got some of her assets in some fashion--loans, grants, donations, whatever,” Anderson told the newspaper in 1998.
Hampton shot and killed Arambula using a gun that belonged to Manuel Vasquez, prosecutors said.
Before criminal charges could be filed, Manuel Vasquez fled to Mexico, prosecutors said.
In 1999, “Jose Vazquez and Hampton were tried and convicted of murder,” and “each was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole,” prosecutors said.
Manuel Vasquez was captured in Mexico in 2023 and extradited to Ventura County on April 16, according to prosecutors.
Multiple felony charges, including murder, first-degree residential burglary and false imprisonment by violence, were filed against Manuel Vasquez the day after his extradition, court records show.
Manuel Vasquez, who is being held without bail, is scheduled to appear in court on May 21, prosecutors said.
Ventura is about an 80-mile drive northwest from Los Angeles.
This story was originally published April 23, 2025 at 12:19 PM with the headline "After decades on the run, man accused in 1998 killing is charged, CA officials say."
