Monica Loera was a transgender woman who was murdered on January 22, 2016 in Austin, Texas. Through using the website, Backpage to advertise her sexual services as an escort, Monica met her final client, a man named JonCasey Rowell. He shot her after he claimed "self-defense" alleging that after Loera asked him to get condoms from his car for their encounter (leaving behind his jacket and wallet in Monica's home in the process), when he returned Monica gave him his jacket but thought she had stolen his wallet (but it was in his jacket pocket). Angry, he went back to his car to retrieve a gun, which he used to shoot and kill Loera. He claims when he approached her door, she met him with a baseball bat, even though there was no bat recovered from her home. Roommates of Monica's heard a noise reminiscent of a firecracker; following with Loera saying "he shot me".
He most likely fled thereafter; returning home to his wife and then-ten day old baby. Described as a churchgoing tight-knit family with a love for guns, the state showed JonCasey's computer search history to jurors. The search history revealed an item from one day after Monica's murder which read "Approximately how many people get away with murder each year in The United States". Rowell then continued searching for transgender escorts. Thankfully no more people were harmed by this man.
Most likely caught from police searching his IP address, JonCasey was arrested and charged with murder. He was found guilty on November 6, 2017, in a trial which began on October 31 of the same year. Prosecutors asked for forty-five years; however Rowell was sentenced to only twenty years for the crime.
No comments:
Post a Comment