Maryvale Bar Shooter Who Hid in Mexico for 3 Years Gets 18 Years

A man who spent more than three years hiding in Mexico after gunning down another man outside a Maryvale bar is now behind bars, sentenced to 18 years in prison. Antonio Rios, who was 22 at the time of the June 2022 shooting, began serving his sentence on August 21 following his guilty plea to second-degree murder in the death of Jose Juan Lopez.

According to FOX 10 Phoenix, the confrontation began when Rios tried to convince a woman to leave a bar with him. Lopez intervened and told Rios to leave the woman alone, prosecutors said, a moment that set off a chain of events ending in gunfire in the parking lot near 51st Avenue and McDowell Road.

A Chase Ends in Gunfire

Per the station's report, Rios retrieved a handgun from his vehicle and fired toward Lopez and the woman in the parking lot outside the bar. As Lopez fled the lot, investigators say he fired back, and Rios then pursued Lopez in his own vehicle before shooting him again from the driver's seat, continuing to fire even after Lopez had fallen. Lopez suffered a gunshot wound to the leg, according to investigators, and died several days later at the hospital.

Rios fled to Mexico following the shooting, according to prosecutors, and remained there for more than three years before he was extradited from Nogales, Mexico, to Arizona in September 2025. The article notes that Rios ultimately pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, a class one dangerous felony, per a statement from the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.

Prosecutor: Rios Thought He Could Outrun Justice

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said following the sentencing that Rios believed he could evade justice by hiding across the border for over three years, according to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, adding that her office does not abandon efforts to bring violent offenders back to face consequences.

Under Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-1104, second-degree murder is a Class 1 felony that applies when someone causes a death without premeditation, including by acting with extreme indifference to human life — meaning prosecutors did not need to prove Rios planned the killing in advance to secure the conviction. Arizona's sentencing statute, A.R.S. § 13-710, sets a range of 10 to 25 calendar years for a first-time second-degree murder conviction, with a presumptive term of 16 years, putting Rios's 18-year sentence slightly above that midpoint.

Getting a Fugitive Back From Mexico Takes Years

Bringing Rios home was not a quick process. Extraditions between the U.S. and Mexico operate under a bilateral treaty signed in 1978 that took effect in 1980, requiring a formal diplomatic request, review by a Mexican federal judge, and final sign-off from Mexico's Secretariat of Foreign Relations, according to the Dallas Justice Blog. Even county-level murder cases like this one must first clear the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of International Affairs before any request is sent to a foreign government, per the U.S. Department of Justice.

Rios fled during a period when formal U.S. extradition requests to Mexico were climbing, reaching 85 in 2022 alone, up from 72 in 2021 and 58 in 2020, according to the Law Offices of Manuel E. Solis. Homicide and other violent crimes make up a major share of the fugitives Mexico returns under the treaty each year.

A Neighborhood Long Under Pressure

The shooting unfolded in the Maryvale Estrella precinct, an area that accounts for roughly 20% of all calls for service and 20% of all reported violent crime citywide, according to the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism. It's one of Phoenix's largest urban villages and has long drawn intense attention from city police.

The 2022 killing also landed during a peak period for Phoenix homicides. Citywide crime data released in December 2025 showed homicides fell by about 28% in 2024 as overall crime dropped 4% from the highs recorded in 2021 and 2022, according to eufy US. Separately, the Phoenix Police Department fully switched from the old UCR Summary Reporting System to the National Incident-Based Reporting System in January, a shift meant to capture more detail on individual offenses within a single incident, per the City of Phoenix.