A ruling on extraditing a woman on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list who allegedly killed her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend in September of last year may take a couple months to a year.
Brenda Delgado, 33, was on the run for months and was arrested in the city of Torreon in northern state Coahuila, said the Attorney General’s Office on April 8. She is currently held at a prison in Mexico City and faces charges of capital murder and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution in connection with the murder.
Delgado allegedly plotted to kill her former boyfriend’s girlfriend, Dallas dentist Kendra Hatcher, 35. Investigators said Delgado was jealous because the victim was in a relationship with Delgado’s former beau, whom she dated for two years prior to Hatcher, and because Hatcher had been recently introduced to his parents.
Delgado is accused of hiring accomplices for the murder.
Hatcher was shot and killed in a parking garage of an apartment complex. Authorities have arrested the suspected hitman.
“Although she didn’t pull the trigger herself, she is still responsible for the murder,” said Thomas Class Sr. of the FBI’s Dallas division, according to CNN.
“She was just waiting for the right opportunity, and the right people to carry it out,” the FBI said.
An official who spoke under anonymity said the United States has a 60-day window to formally request the extradition of Delgado. At that point the process that could be as quick as two months if she does not challenge extradition, or up to a year if she does.
If there is an extradition agreement between Mexico and United States, the death penalty will not be allowed, since capital punishment has been eliminated in Mexico. Delgado would face life in prison if she is convicted in the United States.
“The only thing that I want is Delgado back and her to serve justice,” Bonnie Hatcher, the victim’s mother, told the FBI, according to CNN.
“That is the only thing that I think about,” she added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
