UPDATE
Alejandro Azamar Nolasco has been returned to Raton for trial. According to court records Nolasco is being held on a No Bond Hold. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for March 8th and 9th, 2018.
By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
It has been a long time coming, but the arrest of Alejandro Azamar Nolasco, who is suspected in the murder case of Raton’s Mandy Vanlandingham, came Wednesday, November 8th in Tyler Texas.
Nolasco was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at his brother’s residence in Tyler Texas according to Raton Police Chief John Garcia. Nolasco is being charged with one count of murder, one count of burglary, one count of stalking and one count of tampering with evidence. After months of work, dotting the “i”s and crossing the “t”s on a mound of evidence, the District Attorneys office felt it had enough evidence to move forward with the case and in cooperation with the Raton Police Department a warrant was issued by District Judge Emilio Chavez. ICE was notified of Nolasco’s where-abouts noted Garcia and Nolasco was arrested without incident on charges of First Degree Murder, Burglary, Stalking and Tampering with Evidence, one count each. The extradition process will begin to get him returned to Raton for trial.
Vandlandingham was murdered on the morning of Wednesday July 20, 2016 at her residence on Sugarite Ave. While police had a good suspect they had to wait for evidence to be processed by a backlogged State Crime Lab before charges could be filed and an arrest could be made . Once the mound of evidence was processed, all the other parties involved in the case had to review it before an arrest warrant could be requested for the arrest.
