Suspect in Spanish Springs Lazy 5 homicide nabbed in Mexico

23/9/2020 6:39

        Federal agents have arrested a northern Nevada homicide suspect in south-central Mexico.
        
        Washoe County sheriff’s deputies identified 19-year-old Giovanni Gonzales-Mariscal as the prime suspect in the killing of 20-year-old Robert Decoite Jr. of Sparks about two months after Decoite was fatally shot at a popular, suburban park in Spanish Springs on Dec. 2, 2019.
        
        Sheriff Darin Balaam announced Tuesday that cooperation between local, federal and international authorities resulted in the recent arrest of Gonzales-Mariscal in Jalisco, Mexico.
        
        He was returned to California last week and remains in federal custody awaiting extradition to Reno to face a charge of open murder in the case.
        
        Balaam says he requested the assistance of the U.S. Marshal’s Service in locating the suspect in January when the victim’s family and Secret Witness combined to offer $8,000 in reward money.
        
        Ballaam says Decoite was shot "in broad daylight” at Lazy 5 Regional Park in Spanish Springs just north of Sparks.
        
        The afternoon shooting shut down the Spanish Springs Library at the park the following day while detectives investigated.
        
        Gary Schofield, head of the U.S. Marshal district for Nevada, joined Balaam Tuesday in praising the partnership between the county, federal agents and the marshals' international office in Mexico.