New Mexico justice system can't keep up with the Astorga brothers, but Kansas mud can.

The brother of accused cop killer Michael Paul Astorga was charged this week in connection with a fatal shooting of a 50-year-old man in Kansas. Read today's story about the killing here.

The Astorga brothers - Michael, Matthew and Anthony Lucero - have now been accused or convicted of killing five people, including a Bernalillo County sheriff's deputy, a soldier and a lifelong friend. Their records are quite lengthy and include a long history of eluding and working the criminal justice system.

Consider:

Michael Paul Astorga led police on one of the largest manhunts in New Mexico history in March 2006 after he allegedly killed James McGrane Jr. He was eventually found in Juarez. At the time, he was also on the lam for a 2005 killing of Candido Martinez. After allegedly killing Martinez, Michael Astorga walked into his probation officer's office to check in. The probation officer failed to run a warrant check on Astorga, which would have shown he was wanted for killing Martinez. Astorga was let go. Police say that Astorga's family helped him elude authorities during the manhunt. His wife was charged federally.

Matthew Astorga served six years in prison for killing 27-year-old Jose Maldonado Sigala, who was shot five times with a shotgun outside his Martineztown home. Initially, Matthew Astorga was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but in 1999 the state Court of Appeals ruled that he should receive a new trial. The jury should have had the opportunity to convict him of voluntary manslaughter, a lesser crime, the court said. He then pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to eight years. In April 2001, after serving about five years in prison and getting credit for good time, Matthew Astorga was released on parole. More than three years later, in October 2004, he violated the conditions of his parole because he didn’t check in with his parole officer. He was sentenced to three more years, according to court records. After getting credit for good time again, was released, thus serving about six and a half years in connection with Sigala’s killing.

Anthony Lucero was on the loose for several months after he killed his estranged wife's boyfriend. An Army court-martial at Fort Hood, Texas, convicted Lucero, who was a soldier, of murder. He is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole at Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas. Authorities say Lucero, an Army private, killed Oly Felipe, 22, who was also a soldier, in 2001. At the time, Lucero and his wife were expected to get a divorce. Both men were on leave from Fort Hood, Texas. Lucero, who was 25 at the itme, shot Felipe in the head outside a Taylor Ranch home, according to court records. The shooting took place after Lucero went to the home of his in-laws to drop off his daughter and saw Felipe. Lucero opened his shirt, showed a gun, shot Felipe in the head and laughed after killing him, court records state. Before the shooting, Lucero dropped a bullet in his wife’s lap. The shooting occurred in front of two young children, including Lucero’s. It took authorities several months to find Lucero, in part because his family helped him elude capture, prosecutors said. Lucero was arrested during a traffic stop. He was also wanted on a military desertion charge.

But, you can't escape those Kansas law dogs. After Friday's shooting in Leavenworth, police there say Matthew Astorga tried to get away. One officer who was responding to the shooting spotted a pickup speeding in the opposite direction. The officer turned around and tried to pull the truck over, but the driver wouldn’t stop.
Eventually the truck got stuck in mud and police took into custody the driver, who they say was Matthew Astorga. They found a .40 caliber handgun in the truck.

Matthew Astorga is now in Custody in Leavenworth on a $1 million bond.

Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White described the history of the Astorgas as embarrassing when he was interviewed Tuesday night about the recent arrest of Matthew Astorga in Kansas. 

"Matthew Astorga is yet another example of the turn-syle justice system that has miserbly failed New Mexico and, regrettably, now Kansas," he said. "It is embarrassing."