Gruesome Halloween Killing Trial Underway For Lake Elsinore Man

A bloody glove left at the scene of a 35-year-old man's slaying in an Anaheim home on Halloween night 2006 ties a Lake Elsinore man to the crime, an Orange County prosecutor told jurors Wednesday, but a defense attorney insisted his client was out of the country when the killing occurred.

Hector Delio Aguilar Jaramillo, 42, is accused of repeatedly stabbing 35- year-old Roberto Martinez-Escamilla and slashing his throat, nearly decapitating him.

Martinez-Escamilla was the longtime boyfriend of Jaramillo's sister-in- law, according to Deputy District Attorney Howard Gundy.

The killer escaped through a bathroom window, but investigators sifted through a pile of debris in the bedroom where Martinez-Escamilla was killed and found the bloody glove, Gundy said.

The investigation went cold until 2010 when Jaramillo was arrested in Riverside County on suspicion of assault. His DNA was submitted to the state's database and it matched blood found on the glove, Gundy said.

"The evidence is going to show he waited for Roberto Martinez to come home and he was killed during trick-or-treat time, and that he was killed up close and personal," Gundy said.

Defense attorney Frank Davis countered, however, that there were no witnesses to the killing, no motive and no other evidence tying Jaramillo to the crime. He also said Jaramillo will testify that he was in Tijuana, Mexico, looking after his family's home the day of the killing.

"There is no motive why one family member would kill another family member," Davis said.

He added, "There is no evidence other than a black glove that was placed there months or weeks prior to the murder."

Jaramillo met his wife, Xenia, in 1986 in Tijuana, where they lived, and they later moved to the United States, Davis said. The couple had four children together.

The attorney said Jaramillo and his wife got along well with Martinez- Escamilla and his girlfriend -- Xenia's sister.

According to the defense attorney, they all lived in the same house, but Jaramillo and his wife eventually moved to a home in Lake Elsinore.

"There will be no witnesses who will say there was a problem between Hector Jaramillo and Roberto Martinez," Davis said.

The attorney said Jaramillo worked at automotive repair shops and used gloves like the one found at the murder scene.

"Absolutely, 100 percent, that is his DNA on that glove," Davis said. "No one is going to dispute that."

In fact, the gloves came in handy when there was a flood in the bathroom of the house and Jaramillo dragged out soaked carpet and other debris and put it in a pile, where he left the gloves, Davis said.

"The gloves were dropped into the pile and they sat there," Davis said.