Brockton double slaying suspect faces trial in Ecuador on passport charges
Luis Guaman, an Ecuadoran national charged with the bludgeoning deaths of a Brockton woman and her 2-year-old son in February, will face trial in his homeland Friday on charges of using a fraudulent passport to flee the United States, a law enforcement official in Ecuador said last night.
Guaman, a 41-year-old roofer, will appear before a three-judge panel in the First Criminal Court of Azuay in Cuenca on a charge of fraudulent use of a public document, an Ecuadoran passport. The court could render a verdict on the same day, said the official, who has direct knowledge of the case, but spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to reporters.
Guaman fled to Ecuador using a passport in the name of Segundo Castro, a younger man, hours after the bodies of his housemates, Maria Avelina Palaguachi and her son, Brian, were found in a trash bin behind their house in Brockton. Judicial Police in Cuenca, acting on a tip, arrested him soon afterward, and Guaman has been in jail pending trial.
If convicted, Guaman could face several years in prison.
But relatives of the victims and Guaman’s estranged family in Ecuador have expressed fears that he could be acquitted and released without ever facing murder charges in the Brockton deaths.
Ecuadoran officials have refused to send Guaman to Massachusetts, where he has been indicted on murder charges, because Ecuador’s constitution bars extradition, but they said they are willing to prosecute Guaman in Ecuador.
But on Sunday, prosecutor Hernan Flores in Ecuador said he had not received necessary documents from the United States to proceed with the murder case.
Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz has insisted that Guaman be returned to the United States to face the charges, since all the evidence is here.
Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @mariasacchetti. 
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