RivCo Handyman Accused Of Killing Fiancee: Trial Begins

RIVERSIDE, CA — Jury deliberations got underway Thursday in the trial of a 40-year-old handyman accused of fatally beating his fiancée in her Woodcrest home, then fleeing to Mexico.

Eduardo Avalos Escoto allegedly killed 42-year-old Brandie Frazier in 2019. Escoto is charged with first-degree murder.

The prosecution rested Tuesday, and the defense closed Thursday morning without calling witnesses, prompting Riverside County Superior Court Judge Valerie Navarro to elicit closing arguments from the two sides. The statements concluded early Thursday afternoon, after which the judge sent jurors behind closed doors to begin weighing evidence from the nearly two-week trial at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

Escoto is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center.

According to a trial brief filed by the District Attorney's Office, the defendant and Frazier met while he was working as a handyman around her and her mother's property in the 17000 block of Palm Road, near California Citrus State Historic Park, in 2018.

Escoto and the victim began dating, culminating in his moving in with her and living in one of two residential dwellings on the property, occupied by Frazier and her two young children, while her mother, identified only as "L.B.," resided in the adjacent house, the brief said.

The defendant, a Mexican national, exhibited a "clear pattern of violence against women" with whom he became romantically involved, but that was unknown to the victim and her mother, according to the brief. The narrative alleged that in a prior relationship with a woman in Mexico, he had beaten her and threatened her life.

Exactly what happened between Escoto and Frazier on the night of Aug. 31, 2019, is uncertain, but according to court papers, the defendant turned "extremely violent."

The prosecution described the attack as a "gruesome murder," noting that not only was Frazier "beaten violently," but her "neck was broken, and the defendant went so far as to bite her face," according to the brief.

"The manner in which the murder was committed was not only violent, but extremely intimate and personal," the document stated.

On the morning of Sept. 1, 2019, L.B. became concerned when she didn't see her daughter and walked over to the victim's house.

"She found her grandchildren crying and went looking for her daughter ... whom she found brutally beaten and showing no signs of life in her bed," according to the brief.

Escoto had fled and immediately became the prime suspect. Court papers alleged the defendant stole Frazier's "jewelry and other valuables," which he quickly hocked at a pawn shop.

The Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force, whose members include D.A.'s office investigators, discovered Escoto went to Mexico. Mexican law enforcement agencies were asked to assist in finding him. However, in June 2022, authorities learned he had returned to the U.S. and was in Washington state before heading to Texas, where he was arrested in July 2022 by Mitchell County sheriff's deputies at a gas station in Colorado City.

He was extradited to California weeks later.

Escoto has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

—City News Service