BRAZORIA COUNTY, Texas - A man wanted for a 2016 murder is back in Brazoria County.
U.S. Marshals with the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force arrested Evaristo Meza, 23, in Mexico.
"I didn't know whether to cry or smile. It's unbelievable," said Lisa Rodriguez-Spalding, mother of Marc Rodriguez, 22, who was murdered.
Rodriguez graduated from Brazoswood High School. He loved singing and writing music, although he was best known for protecting his three younger siblings.
"He was a heart with legs and everybody that knew Marc, that knew the real Marc, loved Marc," she said.
It was the summer of 2016 at an apartment off Old Angleton Road in Clute when police say Meza and two other men already in custody broke in, beat and shot Rodriguez.
"He was probably the worst one of the bunch, of the three," said Capt. Diane Turner, Clute Police.
Shortly after the murder, Meza ran away to Mexico.
"It angers me we couldn't get to him, knowing where he was at...that was the worst part about it, I guess," Rodriguez-Spaulding said.
"It's always one of our most difficult missions is finding people in Mexico," said Chief Deputy Richard Hunter, U.S. Marshals.
A tip lead the U.S. Marshals to Reynosa across the border from McAllen.
"He was living in a house. It wasn't anything grandiose or anything like that. But he wasn't really hiding that much. He thought he was safe down there," Hunter said.
Once they found him, it didn't take long for the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations to bring him back home.
This mother is grateful the man she believes stole her son's life will face the consequences.
"I don't wish bad on him, but I do hope that he does get life in prison where his family can't see him, just like I can't see mine," she said.
Meza's two other alleged accomplices are both in prison. Jose Rios got 99 years, and Royce Wood got 55 years.
Meza faces 5 to 99 years behind bars. Police say the motive behind the break-in was drug related.