Chuck Rosenthal: So Tough on Crime That a Suspect Goes Free

"It was a big confrontation," says Lou Ruiz. "Salazar said he didn't do anything and then Carrie went and hit him, calling him a liar. We had relatives in the house with guns and Salazar and his friends could have had guns and it all could have gotten real bad real fast."

Instead, Lou called over a police officer who then took Salazar in for questioning.

According to the police report, Salazar's right hand was swollen and bruised, but he denied ever going out with Felicia Ruiz that Friday night. Investigator Straughter says police did not have enough evidence at the time connecting Salazar to the murder, so they turned him loose.

That night, Salazar went over to Huerta's house to warn her that the police had just questioned him. Then on Monday morning, knowing Huerta and Salazar had dated, Straughter showed up at Huerta's home. Like Salazar, Huerta said she knew nothing about the murder. Straughter then drove her to the grassy lot, where Huerta dropped to her knees and broke down sobbing. Police detained Huerta for the night in jail on a misdemeanor warrant out of Bexar County, but on Tuesday Huerta paid a fine and was once again free.

"I get so angry," says Carrie Ruiz, "because they had Salazar in custody, they took a picture of his bruised hand where he hit our daughter, they knew he was with her that night and they just listened to his crap and let him go. They didn't bother to check and see if he was a citizen or not, so by the time the murder warrant came out, it was too late and he was gone."

By now, Salazar and Huerta knew it was only a matter of time before police caught up with them again, so they started making plans to get out of town.

Omar Medina, a former loss prevention officer for Fiesta supermarkets, testified in court that Salazar and Huerta came to see him one night during the week following Felicia Ruiz's murder. Medina lived in the same apartment complex as Salazar.

Salazar told Medina that he was involved in a drive-by shooting and that the cops were looking for him. While Huerta stood outside of Medina's doorway crying, Salazar asked Medina either for a ride to Mexico or for some money. Medina refused to help, and the two fugitives were once again on their own.

Huerta and Salazar were able to scrape up $200 by pawning some jewelry, and then headed out of town.

According to what Carrie Ruiz says the FBI told her, Huerta's mother drove the two fugitives to San Antonio. Huerta and Salazar then took a bus south to Laredo. There, according to Huerta's testimony, they spent two nights on the street. At some point, Salazar spoke to his mother over the phone, and she told her son he was now officially wanted for murder. Huerta testified that Salazar's mother gave up her rent money to buy a pair of bus tickets for them to Miami. Carrie Ruiz says that Salazar's mother also sent her son's passport to relatives living in Miami for Salazar to pick up.

The two fugitives spent a little more than a week in South Florida before Salazar's father flew from Venezuela to Miami on a private jet under the guise of a business trip. He then took Salazar back to the sanctuary of his homeland, Venezuela.

Unfortunately for Huerta, while her former lover's future was looking brighter than ever, her ride on the fugitive express was about to end. Salazar's father would not take her along because she was a U.S. citizen, so Huerta made the long and lonely bus trip back to her hometown of San Antonio. She hid out there for a couple of months before finally getting a lawyer and turning herself over to the police.