Modesto mom, fiancée sentenced for torture and murder of 3-year-old boy
A Modesto mom and her fiancée were sentenced this month to 22 years to life in state prison for torturing and killing her 3-year-old son in 2017.
Gilbert Escamilla, 3, was found with extensive injuries to his body when Modesto police and medical personnel responded to a report of a child not breathing at the Emerald Pointe apartments on the 300 block of Standiford Avenue on March 1, 2017.
The toddler was taken to Doctors Medical Center and then flown to Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera for further treatment, but he died the next day.
Hospital personnel documented injuries including severe burn marks on his legs, bruising and abrasions over his entire body and various broken bones, according to a news release from the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office. Doctors also found internal damage consisting of bleeding on the brain, a bruised lung and bruised liver.
Modesto police arrested Connie Marie Escamilla, 29, and her fiancée, Kylie Mykaela Ann Beasley, 25.
When detectives interviewed Escamilla and Beasley in separate rooms, both claimed Gilbert suffered some of the injuries during a car crash. When investigators pressed them for specifics, each was inconsistent with the other about when the crash occurred and there were no law enforcement or other records to back it up, according to the news release.
The pair further blamed his severe leg burns on hot water spilling on him, but doctors determined that could not have caused the injuries they saw. Additional excuses included falling off his bed, blaming an unknown male whom law enforcement never was able to locate, and negligence by the medical professionals who administered CPR to the unresponsive child.
When told Gilbert had died, both Escamilla and Beasley admitted to being untruthful and blamed the other for the child’s injuries and death, according to prosecutors.
In December, Escamilla and Beasley each pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder and one count of torture and waived two years of earned custody credits.
On March 9, both were sentenced by Judge Linda McFadden to serve 15 years to life for the murder charge, plus an additional seven years for the torture count to run consecutively.
Deputy District Attorney Erin Schwartz, who prosecuted the case, said no one attended the sentencing to give victim impact statements on behalf of Gilbert.
She said the boy’s father never was in the picture and a stepgrandmother attended hearings in the early stages but hadn’t come in years.
At the time of Gilbert’s death, he had a 7-year-old half-sister who was taken by child protective services.
Schwartz said the child was adopted by “a really wonderful family.” She said the family was informed of the sentencing but is very protective of the girl and declined to give statements.
This story was originally published March 19, 2022 at 12:48 PM.
