SAN ANTONIO – Matthew Oscar Aranda's run from the law is over.
The U.S. Marshals Service says the convicted child abuser is in custody and back in the Bexar County Jail after months on the loose in Mexico.
They say Mexican authorities found Aranda and captured him Friday afternoon in Chihuahua, Mexico, and later brought him across the border in El Paso and back into the hands of U.S. justice.
In May, 49-year-old Aranda skipped out on a trial in connection with the death of his 3-year-old adopted daughter, Melody Velasquez.
Despite his absence, a San Antonio jury convicted Aranda of serious injury to a child by omission.
The jury then gave him 20 years in prison.
At the trial, the Medical Examiner told the jury an autopsy after her 2009 death showed Velasquez suffered traumatic brain injury, as well as broken limbs and 10 broken ribs.
Prosecutors had earlier brought Aranda's domestic partner, Norberto Velasquez, to trial, and a jury convicted him of injury to a child.
Velasquez died soon after.
In May, they tried Aranda, but he skipped out in the morning before the jury convicted him that evening.
Marshals say they found out in July Aranda was in Mexico, and they'd been on his trail since.
A Marshals Service spokesman said they expected to bring Ardanda back to the Bexar County early Saturday afternoon.
"The loss of a child is never easy to bear, especially when that child's life is loss due to the hands of another," U.S. Marshal Robert Almonte said. "Our task force officers did a great thing yesterday, arrested a fugitive who seriously injured a child and prevented him from potentially hurting another victim. I extend my sincere thanks to our fellow law enforcement brothers and sisters in Mexico who made this arrest possible. Aranda will now be held accountable for his actions."