A bridegroom who allegedly stabbed his new wife to death in 2012 spent 12 years on the run in Mexico before finally facing extradition this week — and a former Joliet teacher charged with beating his wife to death in 2018 has been walking free on bond the entire time his trial gets delayed year after year. Two families, two dead women, and a justice system that keeps the accused comfortable while victims rot in the ground.
Arnoldo Jimenez, 44, arrived back in Chicago this week after his January arrest in Monterrey, Mexico, according to the FBI. He'd been on the run since May 2012, when Burbank police found Estrella Carrera dead in her bathtub — still wearing the silver sequined dress she'd been married in less than 48 hours earlier. The Cook County Medical Examiner ruled her death a homicide by multiple stab wounds. Police say Jimenez stabbed her in his 2006 Maserati, carried her body back to her condo, and fled for the border. He allegedly called his sister to say he'd had a "bad fight" with Carrera and left her bleeding. He told a close associate he was heading to Mexico and to tell law enforcement. He was added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list in 2019. Even after Mexican authorities captured him, Patch reported that FBI agents said it could take more than a year to bring him back — and it did.
Meanwhile, in Will County, Michael Kazecki, 46, has been on pretrial release since August 2018 after his family posted 10% of a $2 million bond. He's charged with fatally beating his wife, Rebecca Kazecki, 38, after she intervened when he was hitting their son, according to Shaw Local. Both were teachers in Joliet Public Schools District 86. The case wasn't even scheduled for trial until 2023 — five years after the charge. Then the trial date slid from 2024 to 2025 to July 13, 2026, a date Judge Amy Christiansen called "firm" after declaring the case had "taken entirely too long." It didn't stick. In April, the judge signed an order allowing a defense expert to observe another doctor's forensic examination of Rebecca Kazecki's brain. Histology slides — thin tissue slices — had to be prepared and reviewed. On June 10, both parties agreed to push the trial to September 8 because the forensic analysis wasn't complete. A status hearing is set for July 20.
Shaw Local laid out the timeline of delays methodically. Patch framed Jimenez's capture as a law enforcement victory, quoting the FBI's statement that the bureau "will never stop in our pursuit of justice." Neither outlet pressed hard on the underlying question: why does the system allow this?
Jimenez exploited an open border and a foreign safe haven for over a decade. Kazecki exploited a court system that treats continuances as routine and firm trial dates as suggestions. One fled justice; the other just waited it out. Both strategies worked for years. Rebecca Kazecki's family has waited eight years and counting. Estrella Carrera's children — she was a devoted mother who never came to pick them up — waited twelve.
The FBI says justice never stops. The court record says otherwise.
