Once Fugitive Serial Killer Jose Sifuentes Pleads Guilty To Strangling, Killing 3 Women In Dallas

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — A man who fled Texas for Mexico 18 years ago after being released on bond in Dallas has been sentenced to life in prison in the strangulation deaths of three women, prosecutors said May 13.

Jose Sifuentes pleaded guilty to three murder charges, the Dallas County district attorney's office said. Prosecutors said that as part of a plea agreement, he's been given three life sentences, which will run concurrently.

Prosecutors said Sifuentes, 43, was linked by DNA to the rapes and killings of Veronica Hernandez, 27, Maria de Lourdes Perales, 20, and Erica Olivia Hernandez, 23. They say he met his victims in bars and clubs.

In May 2003, Sifuentes was arrested on a murder charge in the death of Veronica Hernandez, whose body was found in a mechanic shop where he worked. After spending two months in jail, he posted bond and fled. He was indicted after leaving, prosecutors said.

Sifuentes was extradited back from Mexico in 2020.

Prosecutors said DNA collected at the time of the 2003 arrest later linked Sifuentes to the slayings of Perales and Erica Hernandez in 1998. Perales' body was found in a neighborhood in February 1998. Erica Hernandez's body was found on a construction site about four months later.

(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)