By admin 
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — An Arizona man who fled to Mexico after shooting and killing a man outside a Maryvale bar more than four years ago has been sentenced to prison.
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Antonio Rios, 26, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the murder of Jose Juan Lopez, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.
Rios pled guilty to second-degree murder, according to the attorney’s office.
In June 2022, Rios and Lopez got into an argument in the parking lot of a Maryvale bar near 51st Ave and McDowell, prosecutors said.
Rios was trying to convince a woman to leave with him as the bar was closing. But Lopez, who was a friend of the woman, intervened and told Rios to leave her alone.
Rios then grabbed a handgun from his car, shot at Lopez and the woman, hitting Lopez in the leg, according to prosecutors.
Lopez tried running away, shooting back at Rios. But Rio chased Lopez down in his car and shot him again. Lopez was taken to a hospital, where he died several days later.
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Phoenix police said back in 2022 that Lopez, when firing back at Rios, had struck another man who was a bystander. The bystander was also taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Rios then fled to Mexico and was a fugitive for more than three years. He was extradited back to Arizona from Nogales, Mexico, in September.
“For more than three years, Rios thought he could outrun justice by hiding across the border. He was wrong,” Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said in a statement.
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