Crime & Safety
Killer’s Gal Blames Self & Asks For Forgiveness: Letter
A Plainfield woman facing a murder charge for a killing her boyfriend was already found guilty of committing supposedly sent a letter to his mother asking for forgiveness.
By Joseph Hosey
The lawyer for a man convicted of a cold-blooded Plainfield murder says he obtained a letter from the killer's girlfriend in which she blames herself for the slaying.
The girlfriend, Gabriela Escutia, 24, is awaiting trial for the same murder. She and Riccardo Gutierrez, also 24, allegedly shot 18-year-old Javier Barrios to death in a field off Route 59 in October 2007.
Escutia actually shot Barrios first, Plainfield police said. She allegedly set up a rendezvous with Barrios in the field near a Meijer service station. Gutierrez reportedly joined her for the meeting.
Barrios, a Romeoville resident, ran away after Escutia shot him, police said.
Gutierrez chased after him and shot him in the back, then shot him again while he was lying face-down on the ground, prosecutors said.
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Gutierrez's attorneys, Jeff Tomczak and Paul Napolski, are trying to get him a new trial. They claim Escutia wanted to testify at Gutierrez's trial but her lawyer threatened to walk out on her if she did.
Tomczak and Napolski are working to get recordings of jailhouse telephone conversations in which Escutia supposedly tells of being discouraged from testifying. Prosecutors and Escutia's attorneys are looking to stop Tomczak and Napolski from getting the tapes.
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During a hearing Thursday morning, Tomczak said he obtained a letter apparently penned by Escutia and sent to Gutierrez's mother.
"I don't know if you ever blamed me for the problem he finds himself in or if you blame now but regardless I need to ask you to forgive me," the letter says.
"Because in my mind it's my fault," says the letter, which also tells how much the writer and Gutierrez love each other.
During the same Thursday morning hearing, prosecutor Frank Byers said the Plainfield police will be providing the state's attorney's office with a video recording of detectives interviewing a witness identified only as "Troubles."
Troubles supposedly accompanied Escutia and Gutierrez on their alleged mission to assassinate Barrios. During Gutierrez's trial in March, Tomczak said "the government did nothing to find out who Troubles is."
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