Sarah Root's alleged killer extradited from Honduras to Omaha

The man accused of causing the 2016 drunken driving crash that killed Sarah Root was extradited to the United States on Friday.

In a Friday evening press call, Sen. Joni Ernst announced she had just left Eppley Airfield in Omaha, where Eswin Mejia was taken into U.S. custody. He is being held in the Douglas County Jail in Nebraska as he awaits trial in Root’s death.

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Mejia was arrested in late February in Honduras after fleeing the country and evading capture for nearly a decade.

Mejia is accused in the Omaha crash that killed 21-year-old Root, of Council Bluffs, on the night of her college graduation. After posting bail in the days after his arrest, Mejia, now 27, skipped court hearings and disappeared. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been notified of Mejia’s wanted status and the charges against him, but Mejia was not taken into federal custody.

“For years, we've been telling her story alongside her parents, Michelle Root and Scott Root,” Ernst said, “so this illegal immigrant would be brought to justice and her family could finally have some closure. And thankfully, the Trump administration never, ever forgot Sarah Root's story.”

Ernst said she believes President Donald Trump wanted to use this case as an example. Earlier this year, Trump signed Ernst’s 2016 “Sarah’s Law” as an amendment to the Laken Riley Act, which requires ICE to detain immigrants lacking permanent legal status who are believed to have committed violent crimes against U.S. citizens.

“Together, we fought for justice to hold the illegal immigrant who took her life accountable,” Ernst said. “Now, Mejia will face the consequences of his actions, and my Sarah’s Law will ensure that he nor anyone else who breaks our laws can’t escape justice again.”

Ernst called the case a long-fought battle that has spanned nearly a decade, praising the Trump administration for acting to “prevent this from happening to someone else’s daughter” while rebuking the Biden administration for removing Mejia from ICE’s Most Wanted list.

Ernst said she spoke with Sarah’s mother, Michelle Root, on Friday.

“She was very, very excited to know that Mejia was going to be touching down here on U.S. soil and that he was finally going to face justice,” Ernst said. “This has been nine years in the making and she was just very elated and so grateful.”