CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Juan Deras Escalante will spend the rest of his life behind bars after a jury found him guilty of killing a newly-minted Charlotte father nearly five years ago.
The Mecklenburg County District Attorney's Office announced Escalante's conviction on Wednesday, reporting a jury convicted the 23-year-old man of first-degree murder and four counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied property. Escalante was then sentenced to life without parole for the murder charge and between 8-13 years for the other four charges.
Escalante and his co-defendant, Gerardo Lagunes, were tried for killing 41-year-old Domingo Venencio-Tapia on April 29, 2019. Both Escalante and Lagunes were under the age of 21 at the time and had asked Venencio-Tapia to buy alcohol for them while at the Restaurante Lempira along South Boulevard, but he refused. The duo then got in a car to pull out of the parking lot, only to stop for Escalante to fire five shots toward the restaurant. One of the shots hit Venencio-Tapia, killing him.
Escalante was arrested the day after killing Venencio-Tapia. He was taken into custody by SWAT according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department after barricading himself inside a home. The DA's office noted that Lagunes had previously pleaded guilty in connection to the crime.
While Escalante awaited trial in jail, CMPD said they were able to tie him to yet another killing that happened in December 2018. Officers said he and 20-year-old Mario Jose Ramirez-Duarte were accused of killing Tyron Jodie Ervin at a south Charlotte apartment complex. Ramirez-Duarte was taken into custody in August 2021.
Escalante's trial started on January 29, 2024. It lasted for nine days.