Fugitive wanted in wife’s murder caught in Massachusetts 27 years after fleeing Colombia
A fugitive wanted in the 1993 murder of his wife in Colombia was arrested after authorities found him living a new life in Massachusetts.
William Hernando Usma Acosta had been living in the Boston suburb of Belmont under the alias Carlos Alberto Rendon ever since he sneaked into the United States back in 1995. He was arrested on Wednesday “without incident as he was heading into work” in nearby Waltham, according to statements released by the FBI and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement on Thursday.
Usma Acosta was convicted in absentia in Colombia’s Seventh Circuit Penal Court of Medellin in 1996 and sentenced to 40 years in prison on counts including aggravated murder, aggravated attempted murder, and illegal possession of a firearm, the FBI said. His sentence was later reduced to 28 years and six months based on new sentencing guidelines, according to the news release.
The charges stem from the killing of Laura Rose Agudelo, in Medellin, Colombia, and the attempted murder of Uma Acosta’s daughter.
“The murder was the result of a domestic violence incident in which Usma Acosta shot and killed his wife and then shot his daughter as she tried to intervene,” according to the FBI.
He fled Colombia shortly after the slaying, which took place on June 19, 1994, and has spent the last 27 years eluding law enforcement.
Investigators caught a break in the case in June 2020, when they learned that he may have been living in the greater Boston area. According to immigration records, he married an American citizen and obtained lawful, permanent resident status in 1998.
Usma Acosta later submitted an application for naturalization to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services using a fraudulent Colombian birth certificate and fingerprints, which ultimately helped authorities track him down.
“William Hernando Usma Acosta is a convicted cold-blooded killer who thought he could evade justice by entering the United States and creating a new identity for himself so he could live under the radar,” said Joseph Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division. “He needs to face justice for what he did, and today’s arrest ensures that he will.”
Usma Acosta, now 61, was transferred into ICE custody following his arrest “and issued a notice to appear before an immigration judge on charges of having violated the terms of his legal permanent status through fraud,” an ICE news release states.
