RivCo Man Accused of Killing Fiance; Jury Selection Begins For Trial

RIVERSIDE, CA — Jury selection is slated to start next week for the trial of a 40-year-old handyman accused of fatally beating his fiancée in the bedroom of 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.

Pretrial motions concluded Thursday, and Riverside County Superior Court Judge Valerie Navarro ordered several dozen prospective jurors, who have already completed prescreening questionnaires, to the Riverside Hall of Justice Tuesday for evaluation regarding their readiness and ability to hear evidence.

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

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 the two residential dwellings on the property, occupied by Frazier and her two young children, while her mother, identified only as "L.B.," resided in a separate house at the location, 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 evidently 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" as the two lay in bed.

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 was nowhere around and immediately became the prime suspect after detectives arrived at the property.

Court papers alleged the defendant ransacked the bedroom, stealing 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, believed that Escoto had fled to Mexico after allegedly committing the murder. Mexican law enforcement agencies were asked to assist in finding him. However, in June 2022, authorities discovered that the defendant had returned to the U.S. and was possibly in Washington state. Further leads were developed that indicated he was actually in 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