‘America’s Most Wanted’ fugitive from H.B. arrested in Colorado

Authorities in Colorado caught a Huntington Beach man who had been on the run from local police for about four years, according to authorities.

Grand Junction, Colo., police arrested Luke Austin Artinger, 23, in October on suspicion of drug trafficking, and he is being held in a Mesa County, Colo., jail, according to a Huntington Beach police press statement. It has yet to be determined when he will be extradited to California.

The fugitive, who has been featured on the TV show “America’s Most Wanted,” was wanted for parole violations and an attempted murder charge in Huntington Beach.

Local police were recently made aware of Artinger’s capture after his identity was confirmed through fingerprints, according to the statement.

Heather Benjamin, spokeswoman for the Mesa County sheriff’s office, said the suspect was booked under a different name when he was arrested and the department is looking into the delay. There were no other charges against him in Colorado, she added.

Huntington Beach police had been looking for Artinger since July 2010, when he was accused of stabbing his friend multiple times in the neck and head over an argument about money and fleeing the scene, according to a story by the Independent.

He is also accused of violating his parole from a previous conviction on vandalism and battery charges. In February 2007, he allegedly stabbed a retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who tried to detain him when he caught Artinger, who was 16 at the time, spraying graffiti on a wall adjacent to a business near Adams Avenue and Magnolia Street, according to the Independent.

Artinger pleaded guilty to those charges in January 2009 and was sentenced to five years in state prison, but he was released on parole in February 2010.

— Anthony Clark Carpio

Twitter: @acoccarpio