HOUSTON – The suspect accused of gunning down a Harris County corporal and then fleeing to Mexico is the same man who, under a different name, was previously charged with other crimes, according to court records.
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KPRC 2 Investigates’ review of 51-year-old Oscar Rosales’ court records identified a series of criminal charges and identities, leading to questions about his national origin, dating back to the 1990′s.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says Rosales’ full name is Jose Oscar Rosales, but Harris County court documents show he went by at least three other names, including the alias Aguilar Maricide Albarenga.
Documents from magistrate court and the Harris County Clerk’s Office show Rosales was also arrested for aggravated assault with a knife in 1995 by Houston police.
In those documents, he’s identified as Aguilar Maricide Albarenga from El Salvador. He was sentenced to deferred adjudication for five years, but other court documents indicate he violated the terms of his community service.
According to additional documents, in 1996, the court issued a warrant for his arrest for the violation.
During a press conference Thursday, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said the motion to revoke that probation was filed as early as May of 1996, presumably based on his failure to appear. He was using the name Albarenga at that time. Ogg said he absconded and literally evaded detection and capture by law enforcement on that open warrant for 25 years.
“You know, these days, it’s unclear what somebody’s real name is. He’s gone by multiple identities, the identity that he had in 1995 here in the United States was that Mauricio Aguilar Albarenga,” Ogg said.
Ogg also said the 25-year fugitive is wanted for another murder in El Salvador during the time between his 1996 absconding from probation and the murder of Cpl. Galloway. Ogg also noted that Rosales has potential gang or cartel affiliation.
“Prior violence, the violent nature of the offense, potential gang or cartel affiliation, the use of extreme and violent and deadly weapons and other factors that we see present in this murder case equate to capital murder of a police officer,” Ogg said. “The crime of capital murder can only end two ways; in the death penalty or life without parole.”
Now, Rosales is charged with capital murder after police say he killed Precinct Five Cpl. Charles Galloway during a traffic stop in southwest Houston last Sunday. Court documents in this case refer to his 1995 arrest and indicate he may be from Guatemala.
An international manhunt was underway for several days after the shooting until he was captured Wednesday in Mexico, according to the U.S. Marshal’s Office. He was found in Ciudad Acuna, which is right across the border from Del Rio, Texas.
The arrest was made through a joint effort of Mexican authorities and the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force. His identity was confirmed through fingerprints, authorities said. He has since been transported back to Houston and being held at the Harris County Jail with no bond.
“And all people such as Oscar Rosales, who have been violent, who are repeatedly violent should be kept in jail, pending their trial,” Ogg said.
Reina Pereira-Marquez, Rosales’ common-law wife, and Henri Mauricio Pereira-Marquez, her brother, were charged with tampering/fabricating physical evidence.
ICE released a statement about Rosales and the two other suspects being tied to the shooting:
“On Jan. 25, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Houston Field Office lodged immigration detainers with the Harris County (Texas) Sheriff’s Office on Henri Mauricio Pereira Marquez, a 42-year-old noncitizen from Mexico, and Reina Azucena Pereira Marquez, a 40-year-old noncitizen from El Salvador, after they were both arrested by the Houston Police Department (HPD) for allegedly tampering or fabricating physical evidence with intent to impair.
On Jan. 26, U.S. immigration officials lodged a detainer with the Val Verde County Detention Center in Del Rio, Texas, on Jose Oscar Rosales, a 50-year-old citizen of El Salvador, following his arrest in Ciudad de Acuña, Mexico, for capital murder. Rosales previously illegally entered the U.S. on an unknown date and at unknown location without inspection or parole by U.S. immigration officials and later fled to Mexico after allegedly murdering a Harris County (Texas) Constables Office deputy.”