Woman charged in alleged rapist's death

Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2013-12-05 21:54

Video here. Caption:

'Charged with a felony murder count, Norma Patricia Esparza says she played no part in the killing of her alleged rapist.'

A story dated Nov. 23, 2013 also discusses the case. Excerpt:

'She was charged with one felony count of special circumstances murder, which carries a lifetime sentence without the possibility of parole. Her ex-boyfriend, Gianni Anthony Van and two others, Shannon Gries and Diane Tran, have also been charged. They have all pleaded not guilty.
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Esparza claims she met Ramirez at a Santa Ana nightclub in March 1995 and the next morning he asked her to breakfast along with her sister and a school friend. After he drove her and her friend back to school, she says Ramirez raped her in her dorm room. Esparza, who was 20 at the time, didn't report the rape to authorities.
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When she later told Van about the rape, he was "enraged." Van took her back to the nightclub to look for Ramirez. "[Van was] insisting, yelling, telling me that I had to point out the rapist," she testified.

Van, Gries, and Kody Tran (who died in a shootout with police last year), planned to beat Ramirez up and took him to a transmission shop owned by Tran while Esparza and Gries's then-girlfriend, Julie Ann Rojas, went to a bar and waited for an hour, according to Esparaza.

Esparza said that she later saw Ramirez tied and hanging from the ceiling in the shop.
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Esparza married Van later that year, but she says she did it because she feared for her life and was told that if she married him she couldn't be forced to testify against him.
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But after learning of their divorce in 2004, Santa Ana police pursued an arrest warrant, the San Luis Obispo Tribune reports.
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But rape victims right groups believe Esparza is being punished for a crime she did not commit. "We are astonished that Norma Patricia, a rape victim, is now being treated as a criminal," reads a petition on change.org, which is seeking to have the charges against her dismissed. "In continuing to pursue her you are sending a troubling message to other rape victims who already have a sense that they will not receive justice within the legal system."'

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Comments

"Murder by proxy". Intended? Yes or no, justifiable? Well in most states, using deadly force against anyone who isn't 1) obviously trying to kill you either by their stated behavior ("I'm gonna kill you!" followed by an aggressive attack) or the use of a deadly weapon, or 2) while they are trying to rape you or are raping you, 3) trying to rob you with a weapon or are fleeing from it, or are 4) burglarizing your domicile after sundown, isn't permitted. But some states have more expansive rights for other circumstances, such as cattle-rustling (yes, some states still allow cattle ranchers to shoot to kill people trying to steal their cattle).

However I am not aware of any US state or any country that says it's fine to go kill someone who you believe has raped you recently or even not-so-recently, or who you believe raped someone else.

There's a reason for that. You may in fact be getting manipulated by someone into killing someone else for whatever reason, or maybe you're getting manipulated into something else. In any case, it's a police matter. Speaking of which, anyone, male or female, who believes they were raped, should *immediately* report it to the police. Think your house got burgled? Call the cops. Got assaulted on your way to wherever? Call the cops. Got held up? Call the cops. Got raped? Call the cops.

But do not:

1. Not tell the police.
2. Tell an ex-bf about it, expecting him not to play the hero.
3. Cooperate with your ex-bf in identifying the alleged rapist. (And you couldn't do this with the cops?)
4. Say nothing to anyone about the whole thing even after you saw the alleged rapist tied up and hanging from a ceiling. (Dead? Story doesn't say.)
5. Marry the guy (your ex-bf) who led the revenge posse.
6. Stay married to said ex-bf for years and after divorcing him, claim you only did so to avoid testifying vs. him. Also claim you were afraid if him.

Hmm. For someone claiming to live in a state of constant fear of judgment from her family (over being raped? And does telling the police about it automatically mean you need to tell your family?) and later, fear of the man who rushed to her assistance in the form of killing the man she said raped her-- well, she doesn't really strike me as a fearful person.

But I guess we'll see how it all plays out. Let me be clear, she may in fact be telling the truth, 100% worth. I'm just saying, there's plenty of reason to examine her claims closely, given that despite the nature and severity of the alleged crime, she chose not to report it to the police, and her actions led substantively to the murder of a person who was never convicted of a crime, but was killed ostensibly in punishment for it.

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Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2013-12-05 22:36