Ex-cop to return to Hawaii to face 1992 murder charge

A former Pearl Harbor base police officer arrested in Las Vegas has waived extradition to Hawaii, where he faces a murder charge in the disappearance of a Navy Exchange cashier 13 years ago.

Hawaii authorities have 30 days to pick up Jenaro Torres, 57, and return him to Hawaii to face criminal charges, said Assistant District Attorney Bart Pace, of the Clark County District Attorney's extradition unit.

A magistrate at the Regional Justice Center in Clark County signed an order yesterday, formally paving the way for authorities from Hawaii to extradite Torres to Honolulu to face a charge of second-degree murder in the slaying of Ruben Gallegos, who disappeared May 1, 1992.

Gallegos was last seen leaving the Navy base with Torres, a Department of Defense police officer assigned to Pearl Harbor, and was never heard from again. Torres was arrested by military police as he tried to enter Pearl Harbor six hours later.

With not enough evidence to charge Torres with Gallegos' kidnapping or murder, federal prosecutors successfully prosecuted him in U.S. District Court for theft and firearm violations. He was sentenced to two years in prison, part of which he served at a halfway house.

Naval investigators and the state Attorney General's Cold Case Unit were responsible for bringing the case before a grand jury, which indicted Torres Dec. 6.

Torres has been held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center since his arrest.