A Maine man accused of murdering his activist girlfriend by ramming her with his SUV was arrested in Cancun, Mexico, ending a month-long manhunt for the fugitive, officials announced Wednesday.
Raymond Lester, 35, had been on the lam since the June hit-and-run of girlfriend Nicole Mokeme, who was found dead in Acadia National Park while on a retreat celebrating “Juneteenth, liberation and Black excellence,” according to the Portland Press Herald.
Lester was nabbed Monday by Mexican authorities and the US Marshals Service Mexico Foreign Field Office, the service said in a statement.
He was back in the US on Wednesday, held in Chicago and awaiting transfer to Maine “at a later date,” the statement added.
Maine State Police have released few specifics about Mokeme’s death and the ensuing investigation, but cops believe she was killed in the hit-and-run crash at the Schoodic Education and Research Center in Acadia between the night of June 18 and the morning of June 19, officials have said.
Mokeme, 35, the mother of an 11-year-old girl, was a founder of Rise and Shine Retreat, which was described in her obituary as “a rejuvenation center for the enrichment and liberation of Black people in Wabanaki Territory (also known as Maine.)”
In the immediate aftermath of her death, cops asked for help locating a BMW X3 SUV registered to Lester that they believed was involved in the crash. Her death was later ruled a homicide, cops said.
A warrant was issued for Lester’s arrest on June 21 for Mokeme’s murder and federal authorities issued a warrant for flight to avoid prosecution eight days later, the Marshals Service said.
Lester and Mokeme had dated for three years, but Lester had a history of run-ins with the law that included three arrests for domestic violence assault from 2008 to 2011, the Press Herald reported.
He also had various other arrests on his record, such as violating a protective order, drug possession and assault, the newspaper stated.
