Conference to Precede Plainfield Woman’s Murder Trial

Joseph Hosey

A Plainfield woman might actually stand trial for murder before the sixth anniversary of her arrest.

Gabriela Escutia, 24, was locked up in the Will County jail shortly after the October 2007 murder of 18-year-old Javier Barrios, and has remained there since while she waits on her case.

Escutia's trial was scheduled to be set next month. During a hearing Tuesday, a conference between attorneys was ordered to be held prior to the selection of a trial date.

Escutia was charged along with her boyfriend, Ricardo Gutierrez, also 24, with gunning down Barrios in a field by the Meijer on Route 59. Gutierrez has already been found guilty and was sentenced in July to 68 years in prison.

During Gutierrez's trial, his 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.

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."

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