SACRAMENTO—A 24-year-old Sacramento man has been convicted of first-degree murder for the shooting death of Jose Navarro following a fight at a North Sacramento apartment in 2011.
A Sacramento County jury returned a guilty verdict on Thursday, September 4, 2014, against Carlos Escalante.
On October 23, 2011, the victim, Navarro, 23, broke up a fight between his girlfriend and Escalante’s younger sister at an apartment complex at 2546 Traction Ave. Police said Escalante’s sister accused Navarro of punching her, causing a bump on her forehead. She left the scene angry and contacted Escalante to tell him what happened.
Escalante showed up at the apartment complex later that night with his cousin and waited for Navarro to appear before shooting him once and killing him instantly. Escalante and his sister initially told police that they had been fishing in West Sacramento at the time of the shooting, but phone and text records indicated this to be false. When confronted with the records, Escalante’s sister, cousin and girlfriend admitted to detectives what had happened.
Escalante is set to be sentenced September 24, 2014 before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny.
