XPost: alt.politics.immigration, alt.politics.media, ca.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: daily.mexican@gazette.com   
      
   SANTA ANA, Calif. — Norma Patricia Esparza was a Southern   
   California college student in 1995 when she says she was raped   
   by a man she met at a bar.   
      
   Weeks later, she went back to the same spot and pointed him out   
   to her ex-boyfriend. He and two others followed Gonzalo Ramirez   
   out of the bar, kidnapped him and hacked him to death with a   
   meat cleaver, authorities say.   
      
   For the next 17 years, the killing went unsolved and Esparza   
   built her life, earning a doctorate, working as a psychology   
   professor in Switzerland and serving as a consultant to the   
   World Health Organization. She started a family.   
      
   But police didn’t stop investigating, and they arrested Esparza   
   and the others in 2012. She insisted she was innocent but later   
   accepted a plea deal. On Friday, 21 years after the killing,   
   Esparza was sentenced to six years in prison for her role.   
      
   She was not there when Ramirez was killed, but Esparza, now 41,   
   pointed him out to his assailants, said her attorney, Jack   
   Earley.   
      
   “She has come to the point of accepting what happened and her   
   responsibility for not coming forward sooner,” he said.   
      
   It comes after the case drew international attention after   
   Esparza’s arrest and prompted an outcry from sexual assault   
   victims’ advocates, who said the case sent a chilling message to   
   rape survivors.   
      
   After she told Gianni Van that Ramirez had raped her, Van and   
   two others followed and rear-ended Ramirez in his vehicle, then   
   attacked, kidnapped and killed him, dumping his body on the side   
   of a road in Irvine, authorities said.   
      
   Co-defendant Diane Tran also was sentenced Friday to four years   
   in prison but freed based on time already served. Another co-   
   defendant, Shannon Gries, got a term of 25 years to life, and   
   told the court he would spend the time trying to make amends to   
   Ramirez’s family.   
      
   “It torments us to think of each stab, each hack and blow that   
   he received while being tied without being able to defend   
   himself,” said a letter from one of Ramirez’s brothers that a   
   prosecutor read at the hearing.   
      
   Outside court, Senior Deputy District Attorney Mike Murray said   
   he was disappointed that the defendants didn’t acknowledge their   
   roles in the killing.   
      
   “It didn’t just happen. They murdered Gonzalo Ramirez, and I   
   didn’t hear one of them take responsibility for that,” he told   
   reporters.   
      
   Esparza’s husband, Jorge Mancillas, told reporters in 2013 that   
   his wife had told Van about the rape and Van took matters into   
   his own hands. Esparza was forced into a sham marriage with Van   
   to keep her from speaking out when police began investigating   
   the killing, Mancillas said.   
      
   Esparza pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 2014, hoping   
   to reunite later with her young daughter. As part of the deal,   
   she testified against Van, who was sentenced last year to life   
   without parole.   
      
   Esparza’s friend Eloisa Martinez said outside court Friday that   
   she hoped the case would encourage more victims to report rape   
   to authorities. She did not bring her assault allegations to   
   police when she was a college student.   
      
   “I truly believe had she said something when it happened, maybe   
   she wouldn’t be here today,” she said.   
      
   https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/woman-who-pointed-out-   
   alleged-rapist-is-sentenced-in-killing/2016/07/16/3991f22c-4b10-   
   11e6-8dac-0c6e4accc5b1_story.html   
        
      
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