FBI: Modesto murder suspect, sought since 2019, surrendered in Mexico

A Modesto homicide suspect who police said fled the scene of a 2019 murder surrendered to authorities in Mexico and is now in custody in Stanislaus County, the FBI said.

Sacaria Pereida, who court papers show was born in 2000, was one of two men Modesto police believe were involved in the shooting death of Robbie Hull, 20, on Lita Court off of Crows Landing Road. In 2020, the Stanislaus Superior Court issued an arrest warrant for Pereida, charging him with murder, attempted murder and assault with a firearm.

Hull was fatally shot following an “exchange” with the suspects on April 14, 2019, Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Sharon Bear said at the time. An 18-year-old man and a woman in her 40s also were shot and recovered, Bear said in 2019.

Pereida was previously detained in connection with a shooting in 2018 in the area of North McClure Road and Penny Lane in east Modesto. He was suspected of firing at a person who was in the front yard of a home in the area. However, the person was not struck by the gunfire, police said at the time.

Last month, FBI Special Agent Robert Simmons said in a criminal complaint in federal court that the agency had learned that Pereida had turned himself in to Mexican authorities, telling them there was a warrant for his arrest in Stanislaus County in a homicide case. Simmons, who works with the FBI’s Sacramento office, asked a judge to issue a criminal complaint and an arrest warrant to charge Pereida with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

In most cases, such charges are dropped once the defendant is back in custody in the United States, authorities said. The FBI said in an email that Pereida was back in the United States and in custody in Stanislaus County.