Alleged Gun Gal in Plainfield Murder to Get Trial Date

By Joseph Hosey

When Gabriela Escutia gets a date set for her murder trial she will be just two months shy of spending six years in the county jail.

The Plainfield woman was taken into custody soon after the October 2007 murder of 18-year-old Javier Barrios. Escutia, 24, along with her boyfriend, Ricardo Gutierrez, also 24, allegedly gunned down the teen in a field by the Meijer on Route 59.

Gutierrez has already been found guilty and sentenced in July to 68 years in prison. During his trial, attorneys claimed Barrios had threatened to harm Escutia's daughter. They also said Gutierrez was acting in self defense when he shot Barrios in the back a couple times.

Escutia and Barrios had linked up romantically while Gutierrez was incarcerated, she reportedly told police, but the relationship soured.

On the night of the killing, Barrios called Escutia and demanded she meet with him, one of Gutierrez's attorneys, Jeff Tomczak, said during the March trial.

In a written statement he gave to Plainfield police detectives, Gutierrez said he was at Escutia's Plainfield home when Barrios called her.

"We got the call and he started talking crazy to Gabby," he said in the statement. "That made me real mad."

Gutierrez and Escutia reportedly headed for the field to rendezvous with Barrios. Tomczak said another woman, identified only as "Troubles," accompanied Gutierrez and Escutia.

In his written statement, Gutierrez said he and the women got there first and waited for Barrios.

"Then he came and Gabby was supposed to scare him by aiming the gun at him and told him to stop messing with her and her daughter," he said in the statement. "I heard the gunshot so I ran out of there."

The police said Escutia shot Barrios once before the gun jammed. But even after taking a bullet, Barrios continued to menace Escutia, Gutierrez said.

"Javier started threatening Gabby and her daughter," he said in the statement. "That pissed me off even more. Gabby ran up and we met each other and she gave me the gun. Then I shot him twice in the back."

Gutierrez said he ran back to the car and he and Escutia returned to his home in Chicago. On the way up, he said, he tossed away his gun.

"We went home. We then went to watch Saw 4," Gutierrez said. "Then we went to sleep."

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