Woman locks truck to escape boyfriend, but he breaks window and kills her, TX cops say
A Texas man was arrested after police say he fatally shot his girlfriend during an argument.
Francisco Javier Ochoa, 19, is charged with manslaughter in the death of 24-year-old Joselyn Alicia Espinoza, according to police and court records.
Attorney contact information for Ochoa was not immediately available.
On Sept. 15, Houston police were called to a hospital for reports of a woman, later identified as Espinoza, who had been shot. When they arrived, detectives spoke with Ochoa, but he refused to answer questions or consent to a vehicle search, according to a probable cause statement.
Detectives spoke to Espinoza’s family and learned that Espinoza and Ochoa had been dating for a couple months. She had been staying at a motel in Humble, where police determined the shooting took place.
Investigators went to the motel and watched surveillance video, which showed Ochoa and Espinoza pull up in a truck around 1:30 a.m. and park in the parking lot, court records said.
Ochoa then gets out and walks around to the passenger side where Espinoza was and tries to aggressively open the passenger door, court records said. But Espinoza locked it, police told McClatchy News.
Investigators said Ochoa then walked back to the driver’s side of the truck and used a handgun to break the window.
“In striking the glass with the handgun, he discharged it,” court records said.
Espinoza was shot in the head, according to police.
Surveillance video showed Ochoa walk back to the passenger side door and open it. Espinoza falls out of the truck lifeless and into Ochoa’s hands, court records said. Ochoa put her back into the truck, got in and left, according to court records.
Espinoza was pronounced dead at 9:15 a.m., court records said.
She “left behind her most precious love which is her 7 year old daughter,” according to a GoFundMe page.
“We still don’t know exactly what they were arguing about, but all I know is that she was trying to get away from him,” Espinoza’s sister, Destiny Espinoza, told KPRC.
Ochoa is being held on a $200,000 bond.
This story was originally published September 22, 2024 at 10:19 AM with the headline "Woman locks truck to escape boyfriend, but he breaks window and kills her, TX cops say."
