The Daly City man wanted in connection with the stabbing death of a Giants fan near SBC Park was arrested Friday by federal customs officers in Arizona as he was crossing into the United States from Mexico, authorities said.

Rafael Antonio Cuevas, 22, was not armed and did not resist arrest, officials said. He was traveling with his aunt and uncle.

Cuevas was detained when customs officers at the DeConcini border station in Nogales, Ariz., ran his identification through government computers and discovered he was wanted by San Francisco police on a murder warrant.

Cuevas is suspected of killing Timothy Griffith, 21, of Redwood City, the night of Sept. 17, right after the Giants beat the San Diego Padres in the game in which Barry Bonds hit his 700th home run.

Police say Griffith banged on Cuevas' 1997 Toyota Corolla as he and friends walked south on Terry Francois Boulevard. Cuevas' relatives say he had just bought the car from his boss and had driven it to the game.

Cuevas is being held without bail in the Santa Cruz County jail in Nogales, county Sheriff Tony Estrada said. He is scheduled to appear before an Arizona judge early next week and, according to his attorney, Jim Collins, will waive extradition and allow himself to be brought back to San Francisco.

Collins said Cuevas was going to turn himself in and would have done so, had he not been detained by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. (Yeah, right asshole.)

"We anticipated that he would be back (in the Bay Area) this Sunday," Collins said. He said he had been in contact with the district attorney and the police about the impending surrender.

A spokeswoman for District Attorney Kamala Harris confirmed that prosecutors and Collins had been discussing Cuevas' case, but would not comment further.

Although Collins said he does not know where in Mexico Cuevas has been, Estrada said Cuevas' father, Roberto McLean, had come to Nogales recently. McLean had appealed for his son to turn himself in.

The story of the altercation between Griffith and Cuevas was a widely publicized counterpoint to the joyous celebrations of Bonds hitting his landmark home run.

Initial reports said Griffith had brushed up against Cuevas' car and then was attacked. But witnesses later came forward and said Griffith had banged on Cuevas' car, angering Cuevas, who demanded that Griffith apologize.

Griffith refused, according to attorney Stuart Hanlon, who represents one of the passengers who was in Cuevas' car, and the argument escalated into a fight, ending with the stabbing of Griffith.

sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/10/02/FAN.TMP

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I thought only Philipinos lived in the fog bank of America

If CCW's were available this guy would have a new asshole between his eyes.  

I worked in the city for 2+ years and Id say if you dont live there then you have no bussiness being there, there is a fine line between the go and no go zones.  

If somebody banged on my truck you got another thing coming.  I'm not saying this guy did the right thing but you got a fight coming if someone banged on my new truck, if its old youll probably just get the horn and a finger.

This guy was a friend of my friend, though I never knew him personally. Glad they caught this POS.


ETA

I'm talking about the victim being the friend of my friend.

Quoted: This guy was a friend of my friend, though I never knew him personally. Glad they caught this POS. ETA I'm talking about the victim being the friend of my friend.

so is the story stright or did the press leave something out, I mean to kill a person for banging on your truck thats gotta be insane.

The details of the incident are still a little sketchy, but apparently he did bump the murderer's car (I was told that it was an accident while backing out) and then the victim and his friends instigated an escalation of the situation.

The victim's friend was assaulted by the murderer and his friends, being knocked unconscious and suffering injuries. The victim was stabbed at least twice, the mortal wound being to the heart.


There's no way to rationalize this, murdering someone for something petty has no excuse. At least he didn't use a gun.

I know I said I would start a fight but i really wouldn't, I'm a wuss, Its not worth risking your life for.  I had a friend once that got shot to death because he looked at some guy and the murderer said he looked at him ugly.  the murderer was 22 my friend was 14, i was 15.  Its insane what some scum do in this world.