It may have taken 15 years, but justice was finally served last Friday in a Sacramento County court, when Javier Montanez Jr. was convicted of the 2006 second-degree murder of Galt teen Clinton Poole. Convicted by a jury, Montanez was also found guilty of the special allegation that he personally used a knife in the commission of the murder.
Montanez fled the country shortly after the 2006 fatal incident, stymieing police efforts to bring closure to the open case.
According to a Monday morning Sacramento County District Attorney press release, Montanez fled to Mexico and remained a fugitive until 2018 when U.S. authorities were notified that he had been located in Mexico. Montanez was then extradited in 2019 to face homicide charges in Sacramento County.