NEW HAVEN — A Danbury man has pleaded not guilty in federal court to three criminal charges alleging that he murdered a Newtown man in Danbury in 2000.

At his November 12 arraignment before Judge Joan Margolis, Alex Garcia, 37, pleaded not guilty to the charges in connection with the death of Mark Rebong, a 28-year-old Newtown man who was fatally shot while driving to work on the Exit 2 off-ramp of westbound Interstate 84 in Danbury in January  2000.

Garcia pleaded not guilty to felony charges of  murder, assault, and a firearms offense. Jury selection in Garcia’s trial is set for January 8 before Judge Jeffrey Meyer.

In October, a federal grand jury indicted Garcia, who currently is imprisoned on several convictions.

The Rebong murder was long considered a case in which the investigative leads had gone “cold.”

Mr Garcia, in seeking to improve his standing as a member of the Latin Kings crime gang, tragically mistakenly shot the wrong man, according to federal officials, who say that Mr Rebong was neither a member of a gang, nor engaged in any criminal activity.

State police initially investigated the Rebong murder case.

On January 17, 2000, at approximately 11:02 pm, Mr Rebong was discovered in the driver’s seat of a stopped, idling SUV near Exit 2. Mr Rebong had had been shot once in the head and he later died as a result of his injuries.

In April 2000, noted forensic scientist Dr Henry Lee conducted an elaborate nighttime reconstruction of the shooting incident at Exit 2 in seeking to solve the crime.

The indictment alleges that Mr Garcia, who was then a member of the Latin Kings, murdered Mr Rebong in seeking to maintain or increase his position as a member of the Latin Kings.

In April 2007, Mr Garcia was sentenced to spend 40 years in state prison for convictions on charges stemming from a December 2005 shooting/stabbing incident at a Danbury public housing complex. He was found guilty of attempted murder and various first-degree assault charges.