From the San Antonio Express News, on Christmas Eve, 2009, a man who shot and killed a woman for not giving him sex, was acquitted from a charge of murder in the shooting death of an escort. Ezekiel Gilbert hired Lenora Ivie Frago through Craig’s List. She refused to have sex with him and when she would not refund the $150 fee he paid her, he shot her, resulting in her paralysis and her death seven months later.
Jury Acquits Escort Shooter
By Michelle Mondo : June 5, 2013 : Updated: June 8, 2013 9:41am
Photo: Mayra Beltran, Houston Chronicle
A Bexar County jury on Wednesday acquitted Ezekiel Gilbert of murder in the death of a 23-year-old Craigslist escort.
Gilbert, 30, embraced defense attorneys Bobby Barrera and Roy Barrera Sr. with tears in his eyes after the not guilty verdict was read aloud by state District Judge Mary Román.
Outside the courtroom, Gilbert thanked God, the Barrera family and the jury for being able to “see what wasn’t the truth” and for the “second chance.”
Had he been convicted, he could have faced up to life in prison for the slaying of Lenora Ivie Frago who died about seven months after she was shot in the neck and paralyzed on Christmas Eve 2009. Gilbert admitted shooting Frago.
“I sincerely regret the loss of the life of Ms. Frago,” Gilbert said Wednesday. “I’ve been in a mental prison the past four years of my life. I have nightmares. If I see guns on TV where people are getting killed, I change the channel.”
The verdict came after almost 11 hours of deliberations that stretched over two days. The trial began May 17 but had a long hiatus after a juror unexpectedly had to leave town for a funeral.
During closing arguments Tuesday, Gilbert’s defense team conceded the shooting did occur but said the intent wasn’t to kill. Gilbert’s actions were justified, they argued, because he was trying to retrieve stolen property: the $150 he paid Frago. It became theft when she refused to have sex with him or give the money back, they said.
Gilbert testified earlier Tuesday that he had found Frago’s escort ad on Craigslist and believed sex was included in her $150 fee. But instead, Frago walked around his apartment and after about 20 minutes left, saying she had to give the money to her driver, he said.
That driver, the defense contended, was Frago’s pimp and her partner in the theft scheme.
The Texas law that allows people to use deadly force to recover property during a nighttime theft was put in place for “law-abiding” citizens, prosecutors Matt Lovell and Jessica Schulze countered. It’s not intended for someone trying to force another person into an illegal act such as prostitution, they argued.
mmondo@express-news.net
speshek@express-news.net
SOURCE
“During closing arguments Tuesday, Gilbert’s defense team conceded the shooting did occur but said the intent wasn’t to kill.”
When Gilbert pulled the gun on Frago, there was no intent to not kill. No where in the article did it say the gun went off accidentally. This man shot and killed this woman because he considered her life less than $150.00.
Also, two wrongs do not cancel out one wrong, making a final wrong right.
Prostitution: Two people engaged in criminal activity ( escort/prostitute and john) would make their dealings illegal for both, since prostitution is illegal in the state of Texas.
Escort: As an escort, she agreed to render services for her time with him upon payment for services rendered; as an escort, she agreed to give him her time which could range from accompanying him to a movie, dinner function, birthday shower, family reunion, or any other social function.
But under Texas’ deadly force, when she refused to have sex with him, he was able to get off free because her not having sex, not giving him back the $150.00, and their actions occurring at nighttime, made it legal for this man to shoot this woman.
So, by this law, if a fan was to request that Leonardo Di Caprio accompany her to a function, he agrees to be the escort; she agrees pay him $30,000.00 (well, I can’t expect any woman to get Leo for a mere $150.00; no woman would expect that); he takes her to a social function; they enjoy themselves, then lo and behold, somewhere with a breakdown in communication, the woman escorted expects Leo to perform any and all manner of salacious sex acts for her.
Leo refuses.
The escorted woman takes the law into her hands because she felt that theft, at nighttime no less, was committed against her.
She shoots poor Leo.
No law was broken; no theft was committed, until the woman escorted decided and demanded that sex was forthcoming because Leo escorted her to a social function.
But under this Texas law (and by law, since it is not stated in the article, they must mean the Castle Doctrine Law), Gilbert could shoot this woman as if she was stealing his car, his lawnmower, rifling through his wallet to take money, or any other tangible property.
But, until he pulled out his gun and demanded sex; until he shot her; until he paralyzed her; until she died seven months later———-no law was broken. The disagreement was over a contract wherein Gilbert demanded that Ms. Frago perform an illegal act. She was not under any obligation to commit an illegal act of prostitution because Gilbert demended it. Therefore, no theft was committed.
This law is not meant to protect two people engaging in illegal activities, as Gilbert stated with his testimony that he shot Ms. Frago because of the $150.00, and for this I put the blame for this man going free at the feet of the jury. That they had not the intelligence to comprehend what this law covers. The judge and the district attorney should have explained to them what this law covered concerning theft. Then again, the jury would have to be psychoanalyzed on why they ruled as they did. (According to reports, there was one woman on the jury of twelve; the remainder were eleven men). Anyone who thinks that a woman on a jury will automatically side with a woman victim or defendant may be dead wrong. Sexism and archaic beliefs do not just come wrapped in the male gender only. Then again, it depended on what the prosecution went for in their charges during the trial. How they decided to pursue a charge (murder, as opposed to attempted murder, manslaughter, or even reckless endangerment) could have, and did have, an effect that made the case go in a verdict that was not what the prosecution wanted.
As a result of the jury rendering verdicts such as these, there will be more cases where the life of a woman means nothing against the word of a man because he expected sex and she refused to give it.
If not for this man shooting Ms. Frago, she would not have had bodily injury that paralyzed her; she would not have been on a breathing tube; she would not have died seven months later.
Gilbert’s shooting her with a gun caused the effect of her death seven months later. His actions to destroy her over $150.00 caused led to her death seven months later.
Then again, the mentality shown by the jury simply echoed the mentality of a society that devalues the life of a woman.
Not just in the state of Texas, but, all over America.
It was not long ago in the state of Texas that a man could kill both his wife and her paramour if he found them in bed together, in flagrante delicti as it was called, and he would go scot-free. Commonly referred to as the “paramour law,” which referred to the 1925 Article 1220 of the Texas Penal Code. Article 1220 was repealed in 1973 by Senate Bill 34 during the 63rd Regular Session of the Texas Legislature. Before it was repealed on January 1, 1974, Article 1220 of the Texas Penal Code read as follows:
Homicide is justifiable upon one taken in the act of adultery with the wife, provided that the killing takes place before the parties to the act have separated. Such circumstance cannot justify a homicide where it appears that there has been, on the part of the husband, any connivance or assent to the adulterous connection.
So now any man who takes a woman to dinner, and he expects sex after, and she refuses, well, like Ms. Frago, she is as good as dead. Then again, the licence for murder was what this jury allowed in rendering their verdict on a law that puts property above human life.
Here is a scenario: if sex occurred and the escort was a prostitute and was not paid—-could she shoot the john?
Wonder how a jury would rule on that?
And on a final note:
“I sincerely regret the loss of the life of Ms. Frago,” Gilbert said Wednesday. “I’ve been in a mental prison the past four years of my life. I have nightmares. If I see guns on TV where people are getting killed, I change the channel.”
Yeah, you should have nightmares.
And you should be in prison for murder.
There you can change all the channels you want. But, you better keep an eye out for Bug Bubba while you are in the shower. I am sure he would give you something to have more nightmares about.
Ann
BEAUTIFUL, ALSO, ARE THE SOULS OF MY BLACK SISTERS 