Man Arraigned for 2002 Oceanside Homicide

A 40-year-old man who has been hiding in Mexico for ten years was arraigned in the Vista courthouse on March 12.

Fernando Herrera Salas, charged with murder, was implicated in the death of a man who was fatally stabbed in Oceanside in February of 2002, according to police and court records.

Herrera pleaded not guilty to murder and denied all allegations, which included crime for benefit of a criminal street gang, personal use of a deadly weapon, and personally using a knife in commission of the crime. Salas also denied a prior strike conviction in 1994, a robbery, when he would have been 23 years old.

Clemente Nulutagua, 29, was stabbed to death on Garfield Street, according to police, and, “Salas was a documented gang member at the time of the homicide.”

Two alleged accomplices — José Manuel Garcia, known as “Sparky”; and Carlos Herrera Salas, known as “Flaco” — are already serving 20-year sentences, according to police. Carlos Herrera Salas is Fernando Salas’s older brother, police say.

Prosecutor Jon Oliphant presented the case before a grand jury in September of 2002 and got a no-bail bench warrant for Fernando Salas at that time. Mexican law enforcement located and arrested Salas in September 2011, and U.S. Marshals took custody of Salas on March 2. Jon Oliphant, was there to arraign Salas this week.