Carjacking suspect to be extradited to Houston

HOUSTON More than two years after the attempted carjacking that ended as a murder, the accused killer will soon face charges for the crime.

It has been a long two and a half years for the people who knew and loved the victim, Tina Davila. On Tuesday night, her boyfriend, Billy Brewer, told Eyewitness News he hopes now that Rios is coming back to face trial, he might get some closure.

Surveillance video caught Rios and another man in front of a Cricket store on Uvalde in April 2008 in a violent and ultimately deadly confrontation with Davila. Brewer, says it's a day he can never forget.

"It happened on my birthday and I just so happened to be out of town and then I get a phone call," Brewer said.

It was his 36th birthday to be exact. Davila died of her stab wounds. Witnesses said the men stabbed her when she resisted a carjacking because her young infant daughter was in her car.

Rios fled to Mexico.

Brewer says it's been a very difficult two and a half years.

"You do something, be a man and just, you know, say you did it," Brewer said.

On Tuesday, there was a new development in the case. An appeals court in Mexico decided in favor of Rios' extradition back to Texas.

"Now that the upper court has affirmed that ruling, we anticipate his return to the United States will be imminent," Harris County District Attorney's Spokeswoman Donna Hawkins said.

It's news Brewer has been waiting for, although he has trouble with the fact that Rios, who is charged with capital murder, won't be facing the death penalty because of the extradition agreement between Mexico and the U.S.

"I don't think it's fair. He should be the same way she is," Brewer said.

But Brewer is pleased Rios will finally face a judge and jury, and he might finally get some closure on a painful chapter in his life.

"It will be like a weight lifted off and things should get better," Brewer said.

The Harris County District Attorney's Office says he should be back in Texas by end of the year. He will be held in custody until trial.

Rios already has a long criminal history and had been arrested several times. Harris County jailers say he admitted to being in the country illegally. But when they notified ICE, Rios was never detained nor deported. ICE has never explained why that happened.

Kennedy Escoto, who was 17 at the time of the crime, was convicted of aggravated robbery. He drove the getaway car and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.