Gabriel Escalante, 43, holds his head down after being convicted of capital murder and tampering with physical evidence Friday, June 3, 2022. (Xavier Alvarez | The Monitor)
A 43-year-old Edinburg man accused of murdering his friend and his friend’s mother for money hung his head low as the jury convicted him Friday.
Jurors convicted Gabriel Keith Escalante of capital murder of multiple persons and tampering with evidence with intent to impair.
He has been in custody since May 1, 2018, after the bodies of Alejandro Salinas, 53, and Olivia Salinas, 73, were found under a stack of pallets behind their residence on April 28 of that year by an Edinburg police officer who conducted a welfare check on the mother and son.
They were considered missing for over a week.
The jury found Escalante beat Alejandro to death and killed Olivia by asphyxiation.
A forensic pathologist, however, told jurors their bodies were too decomposed to determine their cause of death.
The jury began deliberating about 11:30 a.m. Friday and reached a verdict a little before 3 p.m.
The trial lasted two weeks and included about 25 witnesses and over 300 exhibits.
Escalante’s attorneys claimed another person possibly committed the heinous crimes because most of the physical evidence didn’t connect him to the crime. Prosecutors said the circumstances surrounding his arrest proved otherwise.
The state argued that because Escalante was found with Olivia’s belongings, such as her jewelry, handgun, wheelchair, keys and 2017 GMC Sierra at his old apartment, which he had been evicted from, it showed he robbed the Salinas family after he killed them.
Witnesses and surveillance footage from a pawn shop further bolstered this evidence.
“When you connect all the pieces, you’ll have the full picture,” prosecutor Andrew Almaguer said during closing arguments.
He added that police found Alejandro’s blood at Escalante’s former residence.
Escalante cried quietly and held his head down during the prosecutor’s closing arguments.
The defense, however, argued that Escalante’s fingerprints weren’t found on any piece of physical evidence, his hands showed no signs of damage and that despite his then-girlfriend, Irene Navejar, 44, saying he lit the Salinas’ trailer on fire a day before police discovered their bodies, defense attorneys said the Edinburg Fire Department determined an electrical shortage caused the blaze.
She was also charged with capital murder of multiple persons and tampering with evidence and has entered a not guilty plea.
The defense added that Navejar, who is a three-time habitual offender, struck a deal with prosecutors in order to receive better treatment for cooperating, adding that her testimony was inconsistent.
Prosecutors pushed back, making it clear that there was no deal, only that her testimony on Tuesday couldn’t be used against her should she go to trial.
A jury is scheduled to sentence Escalante on the tampering with evidence charge Monday morning.
A conviction for capital murder of multiple persons carries an automatic life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with the full version.
