Suspect In Fatal Stamford Stabbing Arrested In Texas: Police

STAMFORD, CT — Police said on Tuesday that a man wanted in connection with the 2020 stabbing death of a 37-year-old Stamford man was arrested in Texas last month.

Samuel Delfiro Zapata-Herrera, 31, was apprehended by the U.S. Marshals on Nov. 23 on the outskirts of Houston, Texas, on a fugitive from justice warrant, according to Capt. Richard Conklin of the Stamford Police Department.

Conklin said Tuesday the department is currently going through the extradition process, and Zapata-Herrera is expected to be charged with murder upon returning to Stamford.

On Oct. 4, 2020, police said an officer was flagged down around 9:30 p.m. by a resident who reported seeing a man down on the sidewalk on the 100 block of Stillwater Avenue. The man, later identified as Isaias Sagastume-Aceituno, 37, of Stamford, was found with multiple stab wounds, according to police.

Stamford Emergency Medical Services administered aid to Sagastume-Aceituno, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said an investigation showed that Sagastume-Aceituno was inside Reyes Bar and Restaurant on Stillwater Avenue that night, and got into an altercation outside of the bar when he was stabbed multiple times.

Sagastume-Aceituno walked away from the restaurant and collapsed, police said.

Three days later, police announced that they had obtained an arrest warrant for Zapata-Herrera. At the time, there was concern that Zapata-Herrera, who is undocumented and didn't have a recent Stamford address, would flee to his native Guatemala.

"We've been working with our law enforcement partners, the U.S. Marshals, who are very, very good at tracking people," Conklin said Tuesday. "They had developed some information that [Zapata-Herrera] was out there [in Texas], and they put in the work on a number of days of surveillance and investigation... It took us a while to find him. He fled the jurisdiction almost immediately before we obtained our arrest warrant, but we're happy to report that he is in custody."

Conklin praised SPD Sgt. Sean Boeger and his investigators for working on the case.

RJ Scofield contributed reporting to this story