Jaren Battles sentenced to 60 years for murder of Geraldo Escamilla after week-long Jefferson County trial

Battles was convicted of murder last Friday, capping a week-long trial that centered on disputed eyewitness identification, ballistic evidence, and the question of whether investigators could reliably single out one man in the chaos of a night that witnesses said produced gunfire from seemingly every direction.

Escamilla was 30 years old when he was shot and killed in the early morning hours of March 18, 2023. The shooting happened in the parking lot of DMoney Daiquiris Lounge in the 6600 block of Phelan Boulevard. He had been riding in a pickup truck that was struck by roughly 27 bullets as the driver attempted to leave the lot. Escamilla never made it out of the truck alive. Battles was 18 years old at the time. He is now 21.

Prosecutor Mike Laird told jurors during the trial that a Beaumont police officer who was on scene that night identified Battles as one of the shooters, describing him as wearing a red top and firing from a van. Defense attorney Marcus Wilkerson challenged that identification throughout the trial, pointing out that multiple red hoodies were found on the floor of the van and arguing that the disorder of the scene made any reliable identification impossible. A second officer who also witnessed the shooting testified that he could not identify Battles as the person he saw firing.

Ballistic testing linked five of the nine firearms recovered from the van to the majority of shell casings found at the scene. Gunshot residue testing detected a single particle on Battles’ left hoodie sleeve.

Before the jury deliberated punishment Monday, both sides called family members to paint a picture of two lives the shooting had changed forever. Escamilla’s older sister described a man who held a regular job and ran a water-slide business on the side, remembering him as “funny, loving, caring. If he could give you the shirt off his back he would.”

Battles’ grandmother took the stand for the defense and described him as a “cheerful, active and loving” child. On cross-examination, Laird asked whether she knew why her grandson had sent a text message to someone saying he was a member of the Piru gang. She told the jury she did not know anything about the Piru gang.

Battles faced a sentencing range of five to 99 years or life in prison. He will be eligible for parole after serving 30 years.