Man charged with killing La Quinta partygoer in 2002

INDIO, Calif. (KESQ) - A man accused of gunning down a 27-year-old La Quinta partygoer more than two decades ago was charged today with first-degree murder and other offenses.  

Alex Anthony Uribe, 46, of La Quinta allegedly fatally shot Hernan Marquez of Indio in 2002.

Along with murder, Uribe is charged with sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations.  

He's being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside and was slated to make his initial court appearance Tuesday at the Larson Justice Center in Indio.

According to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, in the predawn hours of Aug. 11, 2002, Marquez was among an unspecified number of people partying at a residence in the 52200 block of Avenida Mendoza, near Calle Sonora, when ``an altercation occurred.''

``During the incident, as Marquez was leaving the location, he was shot by an unknown individual,'' Central Homicide Unit spokesman Sgt. Jarred Bishop said. ``Marquez then drove away from the area at a high rate of speed, eventually losing control of his car and colliding with several parked vehicles.''   

The victim died at the scene. No one else was hurt.   

Efforts to identify the assailant at the time did not net success, and the case went cold.  

"As part of the sheriff's office's ongoing effort to review unsolved homicide cases, investigators from the Central Homicide Unit recently re-examined the case," Bishop said. "Through this review, investigators identified several potential leads ... (and) the case was officially reopened."

Only recently, the Cold Case team had issued a request for public assistance in the matter. On Friday, detectives gathered sufficient information to justify procurement of an arrest warrant for Uribe, which was served on him without incident later that day on the very street where Marquez was shot.

No other details were disclosed.  

Uribe has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.