Ramon Alberto Escobar killed seven people in less than a month in 2018. In Houston, Texas, at the end of August, he killed his uncle, Rogelio Escobar, in the home they shared, and two days later killed his aunt, Dina Escobar, who had come looking for her brother. Questioned by Houston police and released, he drove to Southern California. Over about two weeks in September he attacked men sleeping on beaches and sidewalks in Los Angeles and Santa Monica with a baseball bat and bolt cutters. Five of them died, one more than two years later, and seven others survived with injuries. All but one of the five men killed in California were homeless.
A Santa Monica police officer recognized him by his walk on September 24, 2018, minutes after his last attack. He later confessed to detectives in both states. After a long delay over his mental competency, he pleaded guilty on May 6, 2022, to all seven murders and received multiple life sentences without parole. In 2023, while serving those sentences, he was charged with murdering his cellmate at a California state prison. No resolution of that case has been reported.
Escobar was born in El Salvador. Little about his early life has been reported. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in September 2018 that a federal immigration judge first ordered him removed from the United States in February 1988. He was removed to El Salvador six times between 1997 and 2011, and the Associated Press reported in 2022 that he returned illegally each time. ICE said he had six felony convictions for burglary and illegal reentry.
His Texas record went back decades. Houston station KPRC listed arrests for burglary of a vehicle in 1992, failure to stop and give information in 1995, and assault causing bodily injury in 2001 and 2017. Los Angeles police said he served about five years in a Texas prison, from 1995 to 2000, for burglary; the Associated Press described that term as a robbery sentence beginning in the mid-1990s. Later arrests included an assault in November 2017 and criminal trespass in February 2018. The AP reported that the 2017 arrest, a misdemeanor assault in Harris County, ended in a conviction in May 2018.
According to the ICE statement, Escobar appealed his immigration case to the Board of Immigration Appeals in June 2016. The appeal was granted in December 2016, and in January 2017 ICE released him from custody on an order of supervision. ICE did not say what his legal status was by 2018. Los Angeles police captain William Hayes said in 2018 that he was a previously deported felon who had apparently applied for asylum and that his exact status was under review. How he won the 2016 appeal was not made public.
By the summer of 2018 Escobar was living in the home of his uncle, Rogelio Escobar, on Prudence Drive in the Hiram Clarke area of southwest Houston, along with other relatives. Ligia Salamanca, the daughter of his aunt Dina, told KTRK-TV that he had been looking for work and needed somewhere to stay, so his uncle took him in. She said he had never seemed violent and had not been a source of trouble for the family. Her mother, she said, "loved him as she would a son."
Rogelio Escobar was 65. His family described him as small and frail, and said he walked with a limp. He was retired, his niece told Univision in 2022, and rarely left home except to walk to a nearby store, a daily outing that a neighbor remembered. When Rogelio vanished from the house on August 26, 2018, his backpack, shoes and shirt were found on the porch.
Dina Escobar was Rogelio's sister. Reports give her age as 60 (the Associated Press and the Houston Chronicle) or 61 (Houston police and KTRK). Her daughter described her to Univision as a medical assistant who mostly cared for elderly people, and sometimes children. Her family called her the person who held them together, someone who looked out for others, with short blond hair and a ready smile. She texted or spoke to her children every day. She drove a white Chevrolet van bearing a "Cleaning Connect" magnet.
Court documents later described what Escobar told detectives. He said he had been "planning to kill someone for a while" because of the disrespect he felt from his relatives. He first meant to kill his aunt and her son, whom he said he could not stand, but could not find the son. On August 26, after the household had gone to bed, he struck his uncle on the head several times with an old police baton in his bedroom. He told detectives he felt disrespected, and also that he felt sorry for his uncle's "living conditions." He wrapped the body in a cardboard box and left it in a dumpster at a warehouse on Skyline Drive in southwest Houston.
When Rogelio had not come home, Dina went to look for him. On August 28 she came to the house and searched it while her nephew watched. He then broke into her van, hid beneath clothing and other items inside, and waited for her. When she got in, he attacked her from behind with the baton and strangled her. He left her body in a dumpster near Broadway and the South Loop, and later burned her van on a beach near Galveston.
The family reported both siblings missing, and Houston police received the case at the end of August. "We just have to find her. We have to find my uncle," Dina's daughter told KPRC on August 31. "There's no way a car can just disappear." Relatives searched Sims Bayou, handed out flyers and asked neighbors for surveillance footage. Texas EquuSearch joined the search on September 1 near Hiram Clarke and West Orem Drive. The next day the family said investigators had told them that a burned-out vehicle on a Galveston beach was Dina's van. "It's very suspicious circumstances, to say the least," said Tim Miller of Texas EquuSearch.
On August 30, a Houston officer interviewed Ramon Escobar at the house on Prudence Drive and noticed scratch marks on his throat. Phone location data placed him in Galveston early that morning, which he confirmed. He told detectives he had last seen his uncle on August 24 and gave conflicting accounts of where he had been. He then gave a second interview to homicide detectives downtown. "We had no probable cause to arrest or book him," police spokesman Kese Smith said later. Houston police said in December that at the time there was no direct evidence of foul play or of his involvement. Shortly after the interviews he left Texas, driving west on Interstate 10.
Escobar arrived in the Los Angeles area on September 5, 2018, in a black 2004 Honda CR-V with Texas plates, the Associated Press reported, after a drive of about 1,500 miles. Police said he was homeless. Over the next three weeks Los Angeles and Santa Monica police linked him to a string of attacks on people sleeping outdoors. Captain Hayes, of the Los Angeles Police Department, said most of the attacks appeared to be "crimes of opportunity" with robbery as the motive, and that they did not appear to be driven by hatred of homeless people.
Before dawn on September 8, a man sleeping on the beach just south of the Santa Monica Pier was beaten. He survived and was treated and released from a hospital. The next day, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, two people were attacked in Griffith Park. Both survived.
Juan Antonio Ramirez was 51 and was mostly homeless, the Santa Monica Lookout reported. On September 10, two days after the first beach attack, he was beaten in his sleep on the same stretch of Santa Monica beach, about a block from the pier. He was left in a coma with head injuries. He was first listed in the charges as a victim of attempted murder. He never recovered, and he died of his injuries in January 2021, more than two years later. His death became the fifth murder count against Escobar.
Between about 4 and 5 a.m. on September 16, three homeless men sleeping in downtown Los Angeles were struck with a baseball bat. Kelvin Williams, 59, was attacked at the northwest corner of Fifth and Flower streets. Branden Ridout, 24, and a third man were attacked on the south side of Wilshire Boulevard just east of Flower Street. Both Williams and Ridout were from Los Angeles. Both died. The third man survived after being placed on life support. Police released surveillance video showing the attacker going through the men's pockets and belongings before he left.
Little more about Ridout's life appears in the public record. Williams's best friend, Corwyn McKinney, spoke to ABC7 after the arrest. He said the men had chosen secluded spots for their own safety, and that he was still trying to come to terms with his friend's death and did not know whether he could ever forgive the man who killed him.
Steven Ray Cruze Jr. was 39 and lived in San Gabriel. He was a fisherman and the father of two sons. He worked two jobs in Marina del Rey, and he sometimes slept in a hammock under the Santa Monica Pier after fishing so he could get to work early instead of driving home. He kept a gym membership so he could shower before work. "He wasn't homeless, he just slept over here and go to work from here sometimes," his father, Steven Cruze Sr., told CBS Los Angeles. "He just loved everybody, he trusted everybody, that was the bad thing." His father said he knew so many people on the pier that he felt safe there.
He was found beaten to death under the pier at about 6:30 a.m. on September 20. Police at first described him as homeless, and his family corrected that. At a vigil on the pier two days later, his mother, Debbie, said she was missing him more and more. His older son wrote that his father "taught me how to fish and told me to be nice to everyone." He was the only one of the five men killed in California who was not homeless, and the only killing in which Escobar later admitted the special circumstance of murder during a robbery.
In September 2019, Cruze's minor son, identified in court papers by his initials, sued the City of Santa Monica, the Santa Monica Pier Corp., the City of Los Angeles and the State of California in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging negligence, premises liability and a dangerous condition of public property. How the suit ended has not been made public.
On September 17, the day after the downtown attacks, Los Angeles police released surveillance video of the suspect and asked for help identifying him. Investigators pointed out his distinctively bow-legged walk. In Houston, the video reached the Escobar family. Kenny Escobar, a cousin of Ramon's, recognized him. "Once I started paying more attention to the video, when I started seeing it and discussed it with family members then I kind a realized it was him," he told KPRC, adding that the family wanted answers about his father and his aunt.
Jorge Martinez was 63. Shortly before 7 a.m. on September 24, he was struck on the head while he slept on a sidewalk in downtown Santa Monica, near Seventh Street and Colorado Avenue in the 1500 block of Seventh Street, and some of his possessions were taken. Bolt cutters found at the scene were believed to be the weapon. He was left in a coma.
While Santa Monica detectives were still working at the scene, a uniformed officer saw a man walking nearby who matched the description, including the unusual gait. The officer stopped and questioned him and arrested him, about half an hour after the victim was found and a few blocks from the scene. "We have not 100 percent made the confirmation that this is indeed our suspect but it has not been ruled out," Santa Monica police lieutenant Saul Rodriguez said that day. Detectives searched his SUV the next day and seized a wooden baseball bat they believed had been used in the downtown attacks.
Jorge Martinez died in the hospital several days later. Lieutenant Rodriguez said police would ask prosecutors to add a murder charge. Nothing more about his life appeared in the coverage.
The same day as the arrest, Houston police said on social media that Ramon Escobar, nephew of the missing Dina and Rogelio Escobar, had been arrested in Santa Monica and was a person of interest in their disappearance. ICE placed a detainer on him.
At a news conference on September 25, Captain Hayes called Escobar a "violent predator." "He's preying on innocent people," he said. "In most cases our victims were asleep." Police linked him to seven attacks, three of them fatal, and said they were considering whether to describe him as a suspected serial killer.
On September 26, 2018, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office charged Escobar in case BA471690 with three counts of murder (Ridout, Williams and Cruze), five counts of attempted murder and four counts of second-degree robbery, with special-circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder during a robbery. The complaint alleged that he used a baseball bat or other blunt object. The special circumstances made him eligible for the death penalty, and prosecutors said they would decide later whether to seek it. Deputy District Attorney Victor Avila of the Major Crimes Division was assigned to the case. He appeared briefly in court that afternoon and did not enter a plea; cameras were barred from showing his face.
On November 8, 2018, prosecutors filed an amended complaint with four counts of murder, now including Jorge Martinez, eight counts of attempted murder and six counts of second-degree robbery, covering attacks from September 8 to September 24. Escobar pleaded not guilty through his lawyer, Deputy Alternate Public Defender Rick Sternfeld. In court he asked the judge, Gustavo Sztraicher, in a barely audible voice: "Your honor, can I take a plea right now?" The judge said not at that time. "Well, I'm not pleading not guilty," Escobar said. "That's not the route that I'm taking right now."
In an interview with police in October 2018, prosecutors later wrote, Escobar said he wanted to talk about "the people (he) killed." He told detectives he had killed some victims because they "irritated him, they were disrespectful to law enforcement, or he robbed them because he needed money."
Houston homicide detectives traveled to Los Angeles County to interview him in jail. He first denied any part in his relatives' disappearance and then confessed to killing both. He had also described the killings to a jailer and, in a taped interview, to Los Angeles detectives. On December 18, 2018, he was charged in Harris County with capital murder, in the 351st State District Court. Houston police announced the charge on December 21 and named Sergeants M. Burrow and W. Dunn and Detective E. May of the Homicide Division as the investigators, with help from the LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division. Rogelio and Dina Escobar were presumed dead. Their bodies had not been found, and detectives said they were thought to be in a landfill and might never be recovered.
The California case then stalled. Criminal proceedings were suspended after a doubt was raised about Escobar's mental competency to stand trial; a competency hearing was scheduled for October 2019. Proceedings resumed in June 2021, after he was found competent. In January 2021, while the case was on hold, Juan Antonio Ramirez died.
On May 6, 2022, Escobar, then 50, appeared before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mark Hanasono and pleaded guilty, answering "guilty" as each charge was read. He pleaded guilty to the murders of Juan Antonio Ramirez, Branden Ridout, Kelvin Williams, Steven Cruze and Jorge Martinez, admitted the special-circumstance allegations of multiple murder and of murdering Cruze during a robbery, and pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of seven other people. The prosecutors, Deputy District Attorneys Victor Avila and Hilary Williams, wrote that the plea would hold him accountable and spare victims and their relatives a trial. Judge Hanasono sentenced him immediately. City News Service reported the sentence as two terms of life without the possibility of parole plus 124 years to life.
Cruze's wife, Suzanne Gonzalez, told the court he had been an "amazing father" who coached their son's teams. "We suffered a tragic loss that we may never recover from," she said. His mother, in a statement read for her, said her son had been "murdered for no reason whatsoever," that she prayed he "didn't struggle or suffer," and that she grieved and suffered every day.
The Houston case was resolved in Texas, not folded into the California plea. On the same day, Escobar appeared by Zoom from the Los Angeles courtroom and pleaded guilty in the Harris County case to the murders of his uncle and aunt. Asked for his plea in his aunt's case, he said he was "very guilty." The deal took the death penalty off the table in Texas. He received life sentences, to be served in California; he was not extradited. Assistant District Attorney Robert Buss said the agreement ensured he would not be released from a California prison, and that if he ever were, he would have to serve two life sentences in Texas. "He was brutal," Buss said. "The families wanted to see him go away." District Attorney Kim Ogg said Escobar had strangled unsuspecting people and beaten others with heavy objects, sometimes while they slept.
James Stafford, his lawyer in the Texas case, said his client had "major mental issues" and believed "the gods and the demons were telling him to do this."
Escobar entered the custody of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) on December 5, 2022. CDCR described his sentences in 2023 as life without parole for two counts of first-degree murder, and life with the possibility of parole for three further counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted second-degree murder. He was sent to North Kern State Prison in Delano.
Juan Pablo Villanueva, 53, arrived in CDCR custody on February 2, 2023. He had been sentenced in Los Angeles County the previous October to life with the possibility of parole for aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14. At North Kern he was placed in a cell with Escobar.
According to CDCR, at about 8:49 a.m. on February 24, 2023, after Villanueva missed a medical appointment, an officer found him unresponsive in his bunk. Staff tried to revive him and he was taken to the prison's treatment area, where he died. Prison reports filed with the court say Escobar, who had left the cell, approached the officer and said: "Hey, I'm sorry Jenkins, I killed him." He left a note listing grievances about his cellmate's hygiene and refusal to clean the cell. CDCR moved Escobar to restricted housing. In May 2023 the Kern County coroner ruled the death a homicide by ligature strangulation. KGET reported that CDCR declined its request for records explaining why Escobar had been given a cellmate.
On September 18, 2023, Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer announced that Escobar had been charged with first-degree murder, with seven special-circumstance allegations based on his seven prior murder convictions (five from Los Angeles County and two from Harris County), and with assault with malice by a prisoner serving a life sentence. He pleaded not guilty at a brief first appearance, represented by Deputy Public Defender Jano Mattaeo, and was held without bail. In October 2023, after a preliminary hearing, a Kern County judge found enough evidence for the case to go to trial.
These are accusations. No verdict, plea or sentence in the Kern County case has been reported, and in Villanueva's death Escobar stands accused, not convicted.
In October 2023, Escobar was serving his California and Texas life sentences in CDCR custody and awaiting trial in Kern County. Neither his present prison nor the state of the Kern County case had been confirmed in an official record by October 2026.
Proven by his own guilty pleas, and final: the murders of Rogelio and Dina Escobar in Houston; the murders of Juan Antonio Ramirez, Branden Ridout, Kelvin Williams, Steven Cruze and Jorge Martinez in Los Angeles and Santa Monica; and the attempted murders of seven other people.
Charged, not tried: the 2023 death of Juan Villanueva at North Kern State Prison. Escobar is reported to have admitted it to prison staff, but no court ruling on the charge has been reported.
The Houston remains: Houston police said in December 2018 that the bodies had not been found and were thought to be in a landfill. In May 2022 KTRK, KWTX and the Associated Press reported that the remains had been found in a landfill, while City News Service in 2022 and later reports in 2023 said the bodies were never recovered. The record does not settle the point.
Details that vary between sources: Dina Escobar's age (60 or 61); whether his 1995 to 2000 Texas sentence was for burglary (police) or robbery (Associated Press); the number of attempted-murder counts (five in September 2018, eight in November 2018, seven in the plea); and the description of the sentences. City News Service reported two terms of life without parole plus 124 years to life in California and life terms for Texas; the Santa Monica Lookout reported 124 years to life for California and two terms of life without parole for Texas; CDCR recorded life without parole on two first-degree murder counts. One 2023 NBC News report said he pleaded guilty to most counts and no contest to the fifth murder. Martinez's date of death is given only as "Sunday" by Santa Monica police and "late Saturday" by the Associated Press.
February 1988: an immigration judge first orders Escobar removed from the United States, according to ICE.
1995 to 2000: serves about five years in a Texas prison.
1997 to 2011: removed to El Salvador six times.
June 2016: appeals his immigration case; the appeal is granted in December 2016.
January 2017: released from ICE custody on an order of supervision.
November 2017: arrested for misdemeanor assault in Harris County; convicted May 2018, per the AP.
February 2018: arrested for criminal trespass.
August 26, 2018: kills his uncle, Rogelio Escobar, 65, at his home on Prudence Drive, Houston.
August 28, 2018: kills his aunt, Dina Escobar, after she comes looking for her brother; burns her van near Galveston.
August 30, 2018: questioned by Houston police and released; leaves for California soon after.
September 2, 2018: the family learns that a burned vehicle on a Galveston beach is Dina's van.
September 5, 2018: arrives in the Los Angeles area.
September 8, 2018: first attack, on the beach in Santa Monica; the victim survives.
September 9, 2018: two people attacked in Griffith Park; both survive.
September 10, 2018: Juan Antonio Ramirez, 51, beaten in his sleep on Santa Monica beach.
September 16, 2018: Branden Ridout, 24, and Kelvin Williams, 59, killed in downtown Los Angeles; a third man survives.
September 17, 2018: LAPD releases surveillance video of the suspect.
September 20, 2018: Steven Ray Cruze Jr., 39, found beaten to death under the Santa Monica Pier.
September 24, 2018: Jorge Martinez, 63, attacked in downtown Santa Monica; Escobar arrested nearby within about half an hour. Martinez dies days later.
September 26, 2018: charged in Los Angeles County with three murders.
November 8, 2018: amended complaint adds the Martinez murder; pleads not guilty.
December 18, 2018: charged with capital murder in Harris County after confessing to Houston detectives.
September 2019: Cruze's son sues Santa Monica, Los Angeles and the state.
January 2021: Juan Antonio Ramirez dies of his injuries.
June 2021: found competent; California proceedings resume.
May 6, 2022: pleads guilty in Los Angeles to five murders and seven attempted murders, and by video to the two Texas murders; sentenced to life without parole.
December 5, 2022: enters CDCR custody.
February 24, 2023: cellmate Juan Villanueva found dead at North Kern State Prison.
May 2023: coroner rules the death a homicide by ligature strangulation.
September 18, 2023: Kern County charges Escobar with first-degree murder.
October 2023: ordered to stand trial.
October 19, 2026: no later outcome found.