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Noel Hernandez, age 64, was flown back to Westchester on Friday, Oct. 18 to serve his jail sentence for a robbery in January 1981, the Westchester County Police Department said on Tuesday, Oct. 22.
According to the department, Hernandez was charged with first-degree robbery by Yonkers Police and was later convicted at trial in June 1982. However, he fled the country before his sentencing, heading to his native Nicaragua.
After he ran from his sentence, the Westchester County District Attorney's Office filed a bail-jumping indictment. Hernandez's case was never closed but went cold over the years, police said.
However, on Wednesday, Feb. 20, the US Department of Homeland Security contacted the department's Warrant-Fugitive unit and told them that Hernandez re-entered the US in El Paso, Texas on Dec. 8, 2022. At that time, he had listed his residence as Nicaragua and said his intended destination was Miami.
He was at first detained by US Customs and Border Protection but was then released because of overcrowding in the federal Bureau of Prisons holding facility, according to police.
A follow-up investigation continued though and soon determined a possible address for Hernandez in the Miami area. Shortly after this, members of the US Marshals Task Force in Florida arrested Hernandez at the address on Tuesday, July 9.
After court proceedings in the Sunshine State, Hernandez was ordered to return to Westchester. Once he was flown back on Friday, he was lodged at the County Jail, police said.
"He should have stayed in the old country," the department wrote on social media.
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