Austin Murder Suspect Deported From Mexico to Face Justice

Austin, TX – The U.S. Marshals, working with Mexican officials, coordinated the deportation Feb. 18 of a Travis County resident who was sought by the Austin Police Department following a 2022 shooting incident in which a man was killed. 

Cristian Avila-Solis, 21, is charged with murder following the May 23, 2022, incident in the 1800 block of West Slaughter Lane in Austin, where a man was shot in an LA Fitness parking lot. 

Avila-Solis is the third suspect identified since the incident. The victim, Jose Alberto Aguirre Castellanos, 36, sustained serious bodily injury and was pronounced deceased on the scene. 

In May of 2022, the Austin Police Department obtained a warrant for Avila-Solis and requested assistance from the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force in the Austin Division. 

The Austin-based task force continued the fugitive investigation and contacted Mexican officials to assist in the location of Avila-Solis, who was a U.S citizen who was believed to have fled  to Mexico following the shooting incident.  

On Feb. 17, Mexican officials located and detained Avila-Solis in San Luis Potosi on an immigration violation. 

Feb. 18, Avila-Solis was deported back to the U.S. on a commercial flight to Fort Worth,  where he was handed over to members of the North Texas Fugitive Task Force, closing a 20-month fugitive investigation.

Avila-Solis has been booked into the Tarrant County Jail and is awaiting extradition to Travis County.  

In August 2022 the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force arrested John Wiley Bagwell, 21, in Palmer Lake, Colorado, with the assistance of the USMS Colorado Violent Offenders Task Force. Bagwell was also wanted on an arrest warrant for first-degree murder in connection with the May 2022 Austin shooting incident.

Members of the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force in Austin:

• Austin Police Department-Tactical Intelligence Unit
• Georgetown, Round Rock, and San Marcos Police Department
• Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis, and Williamson County Sheriff’s Office
• Texas Attorney General’s Office
• Texas Department of Criminal Justice OIG
• Texas Department of Public Safety
• U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement
• U.S. DHS/Homeland Security Investigations