SHORT TAKES:Extradited suspect in teen’s murder due in court

A Mexican national suspected of killing a Costa Mesa teen in 2001 is scheduled to be arraigned today, officials said.

Victor Manuel Garcia, 23, is the first person to be extradited from Mexico on murder charges for a crime committed as a juvenile. He will face one charge of murder at the Superior Court Central Justice Center in Santa Ana, prosecutors said.

On Sept. 21, 2001, 16-year-old Ceceline Godsoe was found beaten to death on the bluffs of Fairview Park.

Costa Mesa Police were led to question Garcia through fingerprint evidence at the scene of the murder. He fled to Mexico once he was named as a suspect.

Although Garcia was 17 at the time of Ceceline’s death, he will be tried as an adult, prosecutors said.

U.S. federal agents were unable to locate Garcia until October 2003, when he was arrested in Mexico City on assault charges, but he was not extradited to Orange County until December 2004.

— Kelly Strodl