A 46-year-old man made his first appearance in court Monday in connection with the 2006 fatal shooting at a quinceanera in Costa Mesa.
Pedro Gallegos-Garcia is charged with murder with a sentencing enhancement for the use of a firearm, both felonies, for the shooting of Hermes Rodriguez-Raya, 21, on Feb. 11, 2006.
Gallegos-Garcia was extradited from Mexico Thursday night and booked into the Orange County Jail on Friday, according to jail records. His arraignment on Monday in the Central Justice Center was rescheduled for Aug. 8 in the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.
Gallegos-Garcia was a suspect in the shooting following a fight at the party in the 2000 block of Wallace Avenue, police said.
Rodriguez-Raya got into a fight with another man at the party, and the defendant is accused of trying to intervene, pointing a gun at the victim and firing at him, but the weapon failed to fire, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Later, Gallegos-Garcia shot the victim in the back as he was running away, prosecutors alleged.