Handyman Who Killed Fiancee Found Guilty of First
A 40-year-old handyman who fatally beat his fiancee in a "gruesome" attack that included biting her and breaking her neck at her Woodcrest home was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder and other offenses.
A Riverside jury deliberated less than two days before finding Eduardo Avalos Escoto guilty of the 2019 slaying of 42-year-old Brandie Frazier.
The jury went behind closed doors Thursday afternoon to weigh evidence from the two-week trial. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Valerie Navarro gave the panel Friday off going into the holiday weekend, and jurors returned to the Riverside Hall of Justice on Tuesday, deliberating most of the day before announcing verdicts.
Along with the murder count, Escoto was convicted of sentence-enhancing allegations of inflicting great bodily injury, using sophistication in perpetrating a crime and taking advantage of a position of trust.
The judge scheduled a sentencing hearing for Dec. 10. Escoto, who is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta, is facing 30 years to life in state prison.
According to a trial brief filed by the District Attorney's Office, the defendant and Frazier met while he was working as a handyman around her and her mother's property in the 17000 block of Palm Road, near California Citrus State Historic Park, in 2018.
Escoto and the victim began dating, culminating in his moving in with her and living in one of two residential dwellings on the property, occupied by Frazier and her two young children, while her mother, identified only as "L.B.," resided in the adjacent house, the brief said.
The defendant, a Mexican national, exhibited a "clear pattern of violence against women" with whom he became romantically involved, but that was unknown to the victim and her mother, according to the brief. The narrative said that in a prior relationship with a woman in Mexico, he had beaten her and threatened her life.
Exactly what happened between Escoto and Frazier on the night of Aug. 31, 2019, is uncertain, but according to court papers, the defendant turned "extremely violent."
The prosecution described the attack as a "gruesome murder," noting that not only was Frazier "beaten violently," but her "neck was broken, and the defendant went so far as to bite her face," according to the brief.
"The manner in which the murder was committed was not only violent, but extremely intimate and personal," the document stated.
On the morning of Sept. 1, 2019, L.B. became concerned when she didn't see her daughter and walked over to the victim's house.
"She found her grandchildren crying and went looking for her daughter ... whom she found brutally beaten and showing no signs of life in her bed," according to the brief.
Escoto had fled and immediately became the prime suspect. Court papers said he stole Frazier's "jewelry and other valuables," which he quickly hocked at a pawn shop.
The Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force, whose members include D.A.'s office investigators, discovered Escoto went to Mexico. Mexican law enforcement agencies were asked to assist in finding him. However, in June 2022, authorities learned he had returned to the U.S. and was in Washington state before heading to Texas, where he was arrested in July 2022 by Mitchell County sheriff's deputies at a gas station in Colorado City.
He was extradited to California weeks later.
Escoto had no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.
