Juan Miguel Roman-Balderas was sentenced after pleading guilty in the 2014 killing of Emilia Ignacio.
UPPER MARLBORO, MD — A man who fled to Mexico after killing his ex-girlfriend in Greenbelt in 2014 was sentenced Tuesday after the victim’s daughter used social media to help track him down years later.
Juan Miguel Roman-Balderas pleaded guilty in February to first-degree murder in the death of Emilia Ignacio, a 28-year-old mother of two whose body was found in her car in April 2014. The case had stayed open for more than a decade as police searched for Roman-Balderas outside the United States. His sentencing closed a long stretch of waiting for Ignacio’s family and showed how a family-led online campaign helped move an old homicide case back into court.
Kiany DeJesus was 11 when her mother was killed. On Tuesday, she stood in court and gave a victim impact statement, telling the judge what the crime had taken from her family. Afterward, DeJesus said she wanted Roman-Balderas to hear the harm in her own words. “I knew that if I didn’t get it out, I would probably regret it,” DeJesus said. “It makes me really happy to finally get to close all of this.” Prosecutors said Roman-Balderas took Ignacio to dinner at a Red Lobster before the killing, stabbed her 27 times and left for Mexico on a one-way ticket he had bought before the crime.
Investigators identified Roman-Balderas soon after Ignacio’s body was found. Greenbelt police obtained arrest warrants in 2014 charging him with first-degree and second-degree murder. At the time, authorities said they believed he had fled the country, possibly to Mexico. Roman-Balderas, who also used the last name Balderas, avoided arrest for years. During that time, prosecutors said, he built a new life in Mexico and started another family. He also left behind the young son he shared with Ignacio, who was 1 year old when she was killed. For DeJesus, the gap between the killing and the arrest turned the case into a yearslong search for a man she had not seen since childhood.
DeJesus later began posting about the case online with help from relatives and supporters. She shared photos and details tied to Roman-Balderas and said the Instagram account Crime Time Tea Time helped bring wider attention to the search. In December 2023, a woman contacted DeJesus and said she knew a man living in Mexico under another name. DeJesus said that tip helped authorities locate Roman-Balderas. Greenbelt police later confirmed an arrest in Mexico. Federal officials said Roman-Balderas, a citizen of Mexico, was extradited to face two murder charges in Prince George’s County in connection with Ignacio’s death.
The case returned to Maryland after years of stalled leads. Roman-Balderas appeared in court in Prince George’s County and pleaded guilty in February. At that hearing, DeJesus said seeing him again overwhelmed her because it was the first time she had faced him since she was a child. The state sought a 30-year prison term. Roman-Balderas’ attorney argued at sentencing that he had changed, had accepted responsibility and had no other record. The defense asked for a 20-year sentence. Roman-Balderas did not make a statement during the sentencing hearing. The judge imposed the maximum sentence allowed under the plea agreement and said Roman-Balderas had tortured Ignacio.
DeJesus also told the court that Roman-Balderas had abused both her and her mother before the killing. She said he once burned her hand on a stove when she took a few quarters as a child and said he also abused her dog. The memories, she said, made him feel almost unreal after so many years away. “It’s kind of like he’s a ghost,” DeJesus said. “Like he’s not even real.” Her statement placed the killing inside a longer history of fear that family members said preceded Ignacio’s death. The court record now ends with a guilty plea and prison sentence, but the family described the hearing as the first full answer they had received since 2014.
Ignacio was remembered by relatives as a young mother whose life was cut short weeks before major plans for her future. Earlier reports from the family said she was set to graduate from the University of Maryland soon after she was killed. Her death left two children without their mother and forced relatives to keep the case alive while authorities searched across borders. DeJesus said the work changed the course of her own life. After the hearing, she said she is considering becoming a lawyer or detective because of what it took to find Roman-Balderas and bring him before a judge.
The case stands with Roman-Balderas convicted and sentenced in Prince George’s County more than 12 years after Ignacio was killed. DeJesus said the judge told her she was proud of her work, a moment she said made the long search feel meaningful. No further sentencing hearing was announced Tuesday.
Author note: Last updated June 11, 2026.