A woman wanted for nearly 12 years in connection with the torture and murder of her 3-year-old daughter has been detained in Mexico, U.S. Marshals say. Anna Marlene Somoza, now 60, was taken into custody Sunday in Xochitepec, Morelos, and now faces extradition back to Arizona to answer for the 1997 death of Crystal Reyes.
Somoza was detained by Mexico's Attorney General's Office and the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, with cooperation from U.S. authorities, according to KTAR.com. She had been wanted on an Arizona first-degree murder warrant since December 2014, when a grand jury indicted her and her then-boyfriend, Avelino Tamala, in the girl's death. As reported by FOX 10 Phoenix, Somoza gave birth to Crystal in Nogales, Mexico, in 1993 before later bringing the toddler to Ahwatukee to live with her and Tamala, who was not the girl's biological father.
Months of Abuse Before a Toddler's Death
According to the U.S. Marshals Service, as cited by FOX 10 Phoenix, Crystal endured months of severe physical abuse, including being confined to a dog kennel. The Marshals Service said Somoza and Tamala repeatedly tortured, starved, and abused the little girl, at times leaving her bound, gagged, and shut in a small dog crate for weeks at a time. Authorities say Crystal died on January 30, 1997, after being bound and suffocated with a taped towel inside a sealed cardboard box.
Investigative records and trial testimony cited by the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting indicate Crystal's body was transported in Tamala's vehicle to desert land off State Route 238 near Mobile, Arizona, where Tamala dug a grave while Somoza held a flashlight. A hunter discovered partial skeletal remains in the area in November 1998, about 22 months after her death, but the bones sat unidentified in the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office for 16 years.
A DNA Match Years in the Making
The break in the case came in August 2014, when detectives located and interviewed Crystal's biological father, U.S. citizen Darren Stockwell. DNA he provided produced the forensic match that finally linked the Mobile bone fragments to the missing girl, per the Marshals Service account relayed by FOX 10 Phoenix. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office describes the eventual use of evidence in the investigation, which involved the Phoenix Police Department, the ATF, and the office's own Cold Case Unit.
Forensic DNA analysis could not eliminate Somoza as the maternal source of the bone fragments, according to the Marshals Service. Prosecutors charged Somoza and Tamala with first-degree murder in December 2014, and the grand jury handed down its indictment on December 12 of that year. Tamala was taken into custody after arrest warrants were issued that same day, but Somoza was already believed to be in Mexico.
Co-Defendant Convicted, Fugitive Stayed Hidden
Tamala had his own ties to Arizona law enforcement before the killing. He was a former Maricopa County Sheriff's Office patrol deputy who resigned and later engaged in drug trafficking with Somoza, having first met her while she was an inmate at a county detention facility where he worked, according to the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting. A Maricopa County Superior Court jury convicted Tamala of first-degree murder in November 2016; he was sentenced to life in prison the following month.
Somoza, meanwhile, evaded capture in Mexico for nearly 12 years. Federal authorities attributed her ability to stay hidden to close ties with Mexican drug cartels, per KTAR.com. She had previously served an eight-year federal prison sentence for drug and firearms offenses before being released and deported to Mexico in 2008 — years before the DNA match that would identify her daughter's remains and trigger the murder charges. FOX 10 Phoenix reports that Somoza and Tamala had also been arrested on drug and weapons offenses back in 1999.
What Comes Next in the Extradition Process
Somoza's path back to an Arizona courtroom runs through the 1978 U.S.-Mexico Extradition Treaty, which complicates cases carrying potential capital exposure. Because Mexico prohibits capital punishment, Article 8 of the treaty allows Mexican authorities to refuse extradition unless U.S. prosecutors furnish binding assurances that the death penalty will not be sought or carried out, according to the Dallas Justice Blog. Maricopa County prosecutors will likely need to provide those assurances before Somoza can be surrendered.
Once she is extradited, the treaty's Rule of Specialty under Article 17 will also limit what Arizona can prosecute her for. Per the Dallas Justice Blog, an extradited defendant can only be tried for the specific offenses approved in Mexico's formal extradition decree, meaning federal and state prosecutors cannot tack on unrelated charges afterward without Mexico's explicit consent.
U.S. Marshal Van Bayless said the case can now move forward with justice for Crystal, crediting the Phoenix Police Department and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for persistently working to bring Somoza to court, according to FOX 10 Phoenix. Authorities say they will continue efforts to secure her return to Arizona to face the pending charges.
