LA serial killer confessed to murdering aunt and uncle in Houston agrees to life without parole
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A serial killer in Los Angeles admitted to killing two Houston relatives and also confessed to five other slayings and seven assaults in California, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Saturday.
On Friday, 50-year-old Ramon Escobar was sentenced to life without parole in California after he admitted to killing his 65-year-old uncle Rogelio Escobar and his 61-year-old aunt Dina Escobar in August 2018.
Ramon Escobar appeared by Zoom from a Los Angeles County courtroom to accept a plea deal to the charges. When asked for his plea in his aunt's case, Ramon Escobar said he was "very guilty."
Detectives tracked Ramon Escobar to southern California in September 2018, where he had already been arrested for multiple murders and other violent attacks in Los Angeles.
"This man was a monster who killed strangers and members of his own family without a second thought," Ogg said. "He choked unsuspecting people to death and bludgeoned others with heavy objects, sometimes while they slept. His callous actions showed that he never cared about anyone else."
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Court documents show that Ramon Escobar confessed to Los Angeles Police Department officers that he killed his uncle then killed his aunt when she came looking for her brother.
First, Ramon Escobar killed his uncle using an old police baton because he felt disrespected. The uncle had taken Ramon Escobar in and was letting him live at the home on Prudence Drive in southwest Houston.
Ogg said Ramon Escobar's aunt then went looking for her brother, Rogelio Escobar, in her van.
Ramon Escobar hid under a pile of clothes in the van and then tried strangling her from behind with the baton, said Ogg.
The two struggled to the ground, and he pressed his knee to her chest until she stopped breathing. Her burned-out van was found on a beach near Galveston. The aunt and uncle's remains were found in a landfill.
After detectives with the Houston Police Department interviewed Escobar about his uncle's disappearance, he fled to Santa Monica, California.
A month later, LAPD arrested him in the beating deaths of at least four homeless men.
He told detectives about all of the deaths. Details from that interview were included in court documents for a capital murder charge.
Escobar was not extradited to Texas.
Harris County Assistant District Attorney Robert Buss said Friday's plea deal ensures that Ramon Escobar will not be released from prison in California and if he ever is, he will have to serve two life sentences in Texas, which gave the victims' families some closure.
"He was brutal," Buss said. "The families wanted to see him go away."
SEE MORE:
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- Relative of missing Houston siblings who is suspected deadly crime spree was deported 6 times, ICE officials say
- 'I have a really bad feeling': Family and Equusearch look for siblings who went missing days apart
- Nephew reportedly confesses to murdering aunt and uncle who went missing in August
