The Brief

LOS ANGELES - The final defendant in the 2008 murder of an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy has been returned to the United States from Mexico.

Roberto Salazar, 38, is the last of six people charged in the killing of Deputy Juan Abel Escalante, who was gunned down in Los Angeles.

The backstory:

On August 2, 2008, Deputy Juan Abel Escalante, a 27-year-old father of three, was shot and killed while leaving his parents' home in the Cypress Park neighborhood on his way to work.

Escalante, a former U.S. Army reservist, had been a sheriff's deputy for 2 1/2 years.

Investigators initially suspected his death was related to his work at the Men's Central Jail, but authorities later determined that the defendants mistook him for a rival gang member.

According t

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