A man arrested for murder in 1980 escaped police in California, as reported by the Merced Sun-Star, until new allegations of violent behavior surfaced allowing law enforcement to hone in on him in Florida.
The suspect, R.M. was arrested for the November 15, 1980 murder of M.A., 45, on April 8, 2011.
R.M., 63, will be extradited from Florida to Merced County before the end of April. The exact date is unknown, per Deputy Tom MacKenzie for the Merced County sheriff’s department, but a deputy or federal marshal will escort him.
An incident fueled by R.M.’s violent temper, which occurred on April 5, is what led police to his ultimate capture.
While working under the pseudonym, “R.G.”, R.M. had been employed as a general manager at a seafood restaurant in south Florida. On April the 5
th he allegedly threatened several of the restaurant’s waitresses with bodily harm.
One of the waitresses, and possibly more, reported the incident to police and filed a restraining order against him.
Florida court documents include statements from several witnesses that document R.M.’s violent behavior.
What set him off was one waitress reporting to him that another waitress – R.M.’s girlfriend – had been stealing out of the cash register. He immediately responded by screaming to the tattletale waitress that she was lying.
At closing time the next evening R.M. threatened, “"I am going to cap these bitches in their heads” while patting his pockets as if to show that he had a firearm stored there.
While the waitresses quickly tried to finish up their work and clock out to leave, R.M. reportedly said he would “put a bullet” in the head of one of them. Then he yelled, “If I am fired I am not going out without a bang. I am not leaving without shooting this place up ... it will be like Vietnam.
Tomorrow will be the end of this.”
After the group of waitresses left they drove straight over to the Florida City Police Department to file a report – alleging that R.M. had begun making threats to them as early as March 23.
During the March instance R.M. pulled a gun from his waistband, opened the chamber, spun it around and then counted out the bullets. During his count he allegedly told the staff that he had “enough to go around.”
The police report detailed that R.M. made the staff well aware that he carried a firearm by making gun-shaped hand gestures and point it at them in a threatening manner.
Also in the report were R.M.’s alleged public displays of drunkenness.
After R.M. was arrested for threatening a waitress, his fingerprints – entered into a nationwide database of fingerprints – showed that he had been assuming a false name and what his real name was. While he had been released on bail, police contacted and re-arrested him.
R.M. admitted to police that he had been residing in Florida for 15 years.
The man he is accused of murdering, M.A., was allegedly shot to death by R.M. during a struggle after he found the man in bed with his estranged wife.
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