Plan B Forum

Man who stole $1.2 million in fajitas sentenced to 50 years in prison

A former Texas juvenile center employee who confessed to stealing $1.2 million in fajitas received a 50-year prison sentence last week.

Officers last summer found fajitas in the fridge of Gilberto Escamilla, a then-employee of the the Cameron County Juvenile Justice Department who later admitted to stealing and reselling the marinated meat over years.[nine years]

“It was selfish. It started small and got bigger and out of control,” Escamilla said during his testimony, according to the Brownsville Herald. “It got to the point where I couldn’t control it anymore.”

An 800-pound fajita delivery sparked confusion last summer when it arrived at the juvenile center in San Benito, about 10 miles north of the Mexico border. That's because the center didn't serve fajitas.

Escamilla, the employee who usually received such orders, had taken the day off. A trail of invoices and vouchers eventually led investigators to Escamilla, totaling a theft of $1,251,578.

Cameron County Assistant District Attorney Peter Gilman asked for the 50-year sentencing to send "a strong message," the newspaper reported. The visiting state district judge, J. Manuel Banales, made it so.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nat ... 543055002/

When was the last time a person found guilty of stealing 1.2 million dollars worth of merchandise (over a nine year period) was sentenced to 50 years in prison?

(For a little perspective, the sentencing guidelines for Bill Cosby's convictions call for a prison sentence of around 22 months...)

Maybe I could see something like this, if there was some evidence that what he was doing was negatively impacting the welfare of the kids at the detention center, but that does not appear to be the case. (He wasn't diverting food from the residents; he was ordering additional food that apparently wasn't even typically served at the center)

And what the hell kind of auditing procedures do they have that this was able to go on undetected for nine years (and apparently still wouldn't have been detected if Mr. Escamilla had shown up for work the day the last meat delivery was made.)

I get that they want a particularly stiff sentence for deterrence because a government employee is involved, but it seems to me that in a case like this a sentence of 10-15 years would have achieved that...

Seems to me that the ones who should be getting 50 year prison sentences are the judges who've been convicted of accepting bribes in exchange for handing down long sentences to juvenile offenders being sent to private detention facilities, not a relative small potatoes thief like this whose actions should have been found out long before they got to this point.

Yet another reason I'm glad I live in CALIFORNIA despite its many problems.

ie: death row.

I saw that story a while back and was also appalled by the sentence. Our system is so fucked up, bankers can steal billions, destroying the economy and throwing many millions out of work and making many of them homeless, yet they don’t even get prosecuted. We incarcerate pot dealers longer than rapists, and this poor guy - it’s embezzlement, which in most civilized states doesn’t even result in incarceration, because how does that help the citizens? He’s certainly never going to pay anything back while jailed and it costs them to keep him there. But it’s Texas, right? Fucking backward place.

It is hard just to get the police to investigate a property crime here, but maybe a 7-figure theft would get them away from their other work though I wouldn't bet on it. I've told people that the best you can often do is 1099 the thief for their ill-gotten gains and let the IRS provide the punishment.

Although this was a criminal case, maybe the defense should have had a lawyer that specialized in tortilla law.

Meanwhile Lance Armstrong only had to pay $5million out of a $100 million fraud he perpetrated against the USPS. No jail time.

Jeffrey Skilling defrauded people of -billions- of dollars and got a 14 year sentence, since reduced.

Look-a here son we got this greeeat big book of laws and dire punishment for the po' and this little thin pamphlet of love and forgiveness for the rich.


yrs,
rubato

rubato wrote:Meanwhile Lance Armstrong only had to pay $5million out of a $100 million fraud he perpetrated against the USPS. No jail time.

Jeesus Kee-rist, man, he settled out of court!!    This never went to a judge or a jury; he was never found guilty; the merits of the case — whether anyone was in fact defrauded of anything or if indeed the USPS did receive value in exchange for sponsorship monies paid — were never argued.    But you — and the court of public opinion, serving as judge, jury, and executioner — have weighed all the 'evidence', determined guilt, and passed sentence ...

And for the umpty-ninth time, the USPS does NOT receive government funding, so why this case ever rose to the level of the U.S. vs Armstrong is still beyond my comprehension.

-"BB"-

Because the USPS is a quasi-government entity (under the executive branch) and as such it belongs to the American people, its employees are federal employees, etc. - so of course it takes the title of ‘US’ in litigation. Seems pretty straightforward to me, not sure why you find it confusing.

Check this out. It's Lance before he was found out to be a lying liar who lies, and subsequent has-been blight on society.