Garcia-Michel was booked in Ocean County as a fugitive in a 1997 Des Moines hit-and-run.

A fugitive-from-justice booking is a custody charge on a warrant, not a conviction for vehicular homicide and not a finding that Garcia-Michel was the driver. Ocean County Jail records, as the Daily Mail reported them, show that charge after an Aug. 26, 2026, arrest. KCRG reported that U.S. Marshals made the arrest and that Des Moines police are working on extradition to Iowa.

On Sept. 29, 1997, Leslie Ruby, 64, a Korean War veteran, was killed in a hit-and-run outside his east-side home in Des Moines while he was with a riding lawn mower, Des Moines police and the Daily Mail reported. Witnesses could not give a precise description of the driver. Police said the car was large and dark and had no license plates. Days later, an officer found a parked car with that description and heavy damage to the bumper and windshield. Investigators tied the car to its purchaser, Gerardo Garcia-Michel, then 28. He left the state before an arrest. A warrant stayed open for nearly 30 years. Identification of a purchaser and a warrant are investigation steps. They are not a conviction.

America's Most Wanted covered the case about a year later. On Aug. 4, 2026, a Crime Stoppers tip came from a man in New Jersey who told police he recognized a neighbor while watching a rerun. Sgt. Paul Parizek of the Des Moines Police Department said the tip included a picture, that Garcia-Michel had aged, and that detectives compared the photographs and were confident. KCRG reported that U.S. Marshals arrested him in New Jersey. The Daily Mail, citing Ocean County Jail records, reported the arrest date as Aug. 26, 2026, and a charge of being a fugitive from justice. Parizek said the department is working to extradite him to Iowa.

Parizek also said that, over the years, Garcia-Michel slightly changed his name and date of birth, and that this is how he avoided arrest for so long. A Daily Mail image of the America's Most Wanted poster prints the name Conrado Garcia-Medina. Des Moines police and KCRG identify the man they arrested as Gerardo Garcia-Michel. The sergeant's account and a name on a wanted poster are reporting. They are not a court finding that he used that alias, and a name variation is not an element of homicide. A Southern California lead earlier in the case was a dead end, the Daily Mail reported.

KCRG described the file as a vehicular homicide cold case. The charge reported from the Ocean County Jail is fugitive from justice. A fugitive booking holds a person on another jurisdiction's warrant. It does not convict him of killing Leslie Ruby. Extradition, if a court orders it, is process. Garcia-Michel is presumed innocent unless and until a court finds otherwise.