Throughout the incarceration and trial of illegal alien Edwin Ramos for murdering Tony Bologna and his two sons, the Salvadoran gangster said there was another guy in the car who was actually the shooter. It was never entirely clear whether “Flaco” was a real person at all or just a convenient creation of Ramos’ lying criminal mind.

But now, just a month after Ramos was sentenced to life in prison without parole, Wilfredo “Flaco” Reyes (pictured) has been found and arrested.

This is the second post-sentencing bombshell about the case, after the news July 1 that Ramos “killed before”, specifically that he had nailed a gang rival in the Mission but authorities didn’t bother to arrest or deport him.

At any rate, it looks like another emotional trial is in the future for the Bologna family. However, it might make Danielle and her two surviving kids feel safer now that Reyes is locked up. The Bolognas have been living under witness protection in fear of Reyes and other gangsters.

S.F. triple-slaying suspect arrested on East Coast, San Francisco Chronicle, July 8, 2012

An alleged gang leader who spent four years on the run after a San Francisco man and two of his sons were shot to death in their car on an Excelsior neighborhood street could soon be on his way back to the city after being arrested in North Carolina.

Wilfredo “Flaco” Reyes, 31, whom police suspect of aiding the man convicted in May of the 2008 killings, was grabbed by San Francisco police and local law enforcement officers as he tried to climb out a window during a raid Monday on a home in Salisbury, N.C., authorities said.

Police had gone to the home in central North Carolina on a tip from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Extradition proceedings were scheduled to begin Tuesday to return Reyes to San Francisco, where he is wanted on a $5 million arrest warrant on three counts of murder.

Reyes, who is also known as Wilfredo Reyesruano, was a leader of a faction of the MS-13 gang who was with Edwin Ramos when Tony Bologna, 48, and his sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16, were shot to death coming home from a family outing June 22, 2008, authorities believe.

Three life terms
Ramos, 25, was sentenced in June to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murders. Authorities say he and Reyes mistook one of the Bologna sons for a member of the rival Norteño gang and opened fire on their Honda Civic from a car at Congdon and Maynard streets.

The lone survivor of the attack, Tony Bologna’s son Andrew Bologna, now 21, testified that Ramos was the gunman.

Ramos insisted that Reyes was the killer. He said he and Reyes had been on their way to visit a gang member who had been hospitalized earlier that day after being shot, and that Reyes opened fire without warning at the Bolognas after yelling out a derogatory term for Norteños.

The Superior Court jury that convicted Ramos of the murders hung on a count accusing him of firing into an occupied vehicle.

Witness protection
Andrew Bologna and his mother and sister have been in a witness protection program, in part because Reyes was still at large. Marti McKee, a family spokeswoman, said Monday it was too early to tell if the family would remain in the program now that Reyes is in custody.

She said the family was “very happy and very relieved” to hear of Reyes’ arrest.

Tony Bologna’s widow, Danielle Bologna, spoke of the emotional toll that attending nearly every day of Ramos’ three-month trial took on her. But she “will do whatever is necessary to get justice for her family,” McKee said.

“To finally have both of the individuals responsible behind bars is really good news for them,” she said.

East Coast tips
Ramos’ defense attorneys contended throughout his trial that San Francisco police knew Reyes was living on the East Coast but did little to find him in order to build a stronger case against Ramos.

One witness said she had been in contact with Reyes in South Carolina in 2009, and that he said he had been a passenger in a drive-by shooting.

“He said supposedly, his friend got left behind, and he fled, and that’s why he went to South Carolina,” said the woman, who was identified only as Denise G. to protect her safety.

Marla Zamora, head of Ramos’ defense team, called Reyes’ arrest “a day late and a dollar short. We showed them where he was in South Carolina. I don’t think they wanted to find him.”

Second arrest
Reyes was arrested in a neighborhood of single-family homes on a two-lane, semi-rural road in Salisbury, N.C., a town of 33,000 people. With him was Jose Antonio Mejia, 25, another suspected MS-13 gang member, who was booked on suspicion of harboring a fugitive and possession of cocaine and drug paraphernalia.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is holding Mejia because he is a suspected illegal immigrant.

Reyes was booked on suspicion of being a fugitive from justice and was being held without bail, said First Lt. Chad Moose of the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón said he would charge Reyes with three counts of murder, one count of conspiracy to murder, one count of attempted murder and gang allegations.

“We are one step closer to bringing this individual to justice for his heinous crimes,” Gascón said in a statement. “Once the extradition process is complete, we will prosecute this case to the fullest extent.”