San Bernardino County detectives make arrest in 1992 slaying

More than two decades after a man was found shot to death on the side of a San Bernardino County road, 170 miles from his home, sheriff’s investigators say they have arrested a suspect.

Gabino Mondragon Morales, of Phoenix, was arrested in Arizona this month and booked into the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday in connection with the slaying of Fidelmar Meza Garcia.

On Jan. 12, 1992, Garcia, 25, was found dead near Old National Trails Highway in Newberry Springs, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

Garcia lived in the Kern County city of Arvin nine months of the year and worked in local fruit fields to support his wife and child in Mexico, authorities said. He lived in Mexico with his family during the off-season.

On Jan. 11, 1992, at about 11 p.m., witnesses saw two men kidnap Garcia from his home in Arvin, and he was found dead the next morning, authorities said. Despite an investigation by sheriff’s homicide investigators, the case went cold.

Sheriff’s cold-case detectives reopened the case in July of this year. They identified Morales as the suspect after interviewing numerous witnesses, authorities said. Morales, 49, was arrested and booked into the Maricopa County Jail in Arizona before being transported to San Bernardino County.

Morales is being held in lieu of $1 million bail and is expected to appear in court next week, according to inmate information from the Sheriff’s Department.

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