A camera caught her car. Her own tattoos gave her away. Laredo police say Ashley Renea Guzman had been running from a murder charge for almost two years. Officers caught her on August 3 in a restaurant parking lot on San Bernardo Avenue.

Guzman is charged with first-degree murder in the May 2022 killing of Gerardo Nino. That charge can mean 5 to 99 years or life in prison. Police say she handed officers a fake ID with her photo but someone else's name. It did not work. Officers looked at her tattoos. The tattoos matched Guzman. She was under arrest within minutes.

This case matters in Laredo and across South Texas. It shows how fast new camera technology can close old cases. Guzman had been free for years. A single camera alert ended that.

Police say Nino was shot early on May 3, 2022. He was inside his home in the 1800 block of North India Avenue, in the Moreno neighborhood. Someone fired at him from outside the house with rifles and handguns. He died from his wounds. Laredo police called it the city's seventh homicide of that year.

Five people were charged in the killing back in 2022. They were Carlos Valero, 21, Carlos Vela, 21, and Gerardo Rocha, 30. Also charged were Ashley Renea Guzman and two teenagers, ages 14 and 16. Guzman's case was still moving through court.

Then Guzman skipped a hearing in October 2024. She did not show up. Police say she was wanted from that day on. She stayed hidden for close to two years.

On August 3, a Flock camera in Laredo picked up her black Honda near a restaurant on San Bernardo Avenue. Flock cameras are automatic license plate readers. They scan every car that drives by. When a wanted plate matches, police get an alert on their phones right away.

Officers went to the restaurant parking lot to check the car. A woman was inside. She handed over a photo ID. The picture looked like her. The name did not match. Officers took a closer look and noticed her tattoos. The tattoos matched Ashley Renea Guzman's description from the wanted case file. Officers arrested her on the spot.

Police also filed two new charges against her. One is injury to a child. The other is for giving false information to an officer while wanted as a fugitive. That detail comes from El Manana de Nuevo Laredo, a Mexican newspaper that also covered the arrest.

Guzman is now locked up in the Webb County Jail. She has no bond. That means she cannot pay her way out and go home while the case moves forward. A jury trial is set for February 2027.

The case shows how much automatic camera systems have changed policing along the border. A wanted person can no longer count on driving through town without getting noticed.

For the Nino family, the arrest is a big step after more than four years of waiting. The other four adults and two teens charged in his 2022 death were arrested years ago. Guzman was the one who got away, until a routine drive to a restaurant ended it.

Right now, the case sits with the Webb County District Attorney's Office as it heads toward the February 2027 trial. Laredo police have not released any new statement beyond confirming the arrest and the charges.

The bigger question for South Texas drivers is simple. Camera networks like Flock are becoming a normal part of local policing. They helped catch Guzman years after she vanished. That kind of tool is now part of daily policing here, whether people driving through town realize it or not.