An Ontario man who grew up in an abusive home where he started using methamphetamine at age 14 has been sentenced in a prosecution involving a two-day spree of carjackings in 2021.
The sentencing in U.S. District Court in Medford last week adds federal prison time for Gregory Escobedo Jr., 31, to an Idaho state sentence he is already serving.
Escobedo had pleaded guilty to committing three carjackings that started in Oregon and ended with him shooting the owner of a truck he stole in Idaho.
“He has a history of violence, including convictions for assault and manslaughter,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Marco Boccato wrote in a federal sentencing memo. “Escobedo is an incredibly dangerous person.”
Born in Ontario and one of four boys, Escobedo “spent the vast majority of his adult life in prison,” according to a court filing by Brian Butler, assistant federal public defender representing Escobedo.
“One of his first memories is seeing his father punch his mother in the face and then stomp on her head when Mr. Escobedo was just 4 years old,” the federal defender wrote. “His father was physically and verbally abusive to him.”
He started using alcohol and marijuana when he was 11 and methamphetamine when he was 14, according to a court filing.
In 2012, Escobedo cut a 16-year-old girl’s hair, threatened her with scissors and assaulted her, according to Boccato’s filing. He was convicted of fourth-degree assault and menacing. Three months later, he was convicted of assaulting the same girl after she called another man “cute.”
“Escobedo stabbed her with a butterfly knife in the hand, arms and abdomen,” the federal prosecutor wrote.
He was sentenced to prison for that attack and was freed in 2014.
“Not long after being released from prison, he stabbed his father to death” in Ontario, the federal prosecutor wrote.
The father had his own record of violent crimes and imprisonment, according to a court filing after his death. He “frequently” beat Escobedo from the time he was 6 “through the day of the altercation that led to his death,” the filing said.
He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to state prison.
He had been out of prison for about five months when in March 2021, according to state and federal court records, Escobedo approached a man who was dropping a friend off at an Ontario apartment complex. Escobedo ordered the man out of his car.
When the victim refused, Escobedo pointed a pistol at the man, telling him, “You think I’m playing?” and drove off with the victim’s car.
The next day, he confronted a man who had run out of gas on Oregon Highway 201 in Ontario. The driver of that vehicle was on the phone with his father to arrange for fuel when Escobedo drove up behind him.
He ordered the driver out of the car at gunpoint, throwing him out. The victim was picked up by a passing motorist while Escobedo drove the victim’s vehicle about 25 yards before abandoning it.
Later that day, Escobedo stole a truck parked at a gas station in Caldwell, Idaho.
The owner “was able to get help from another person at the gas station and pursued the stolen truck in a different vehicle,” the sentencing memo said. “Escobedo eventually stopped and the owner confronted Escobedo. In response, Escobedo shot the owner of the truck in the chest and left him to die.”
Doctors later recovered a bullet from the victim’s heart, but the man survived.
Escobedo was stopped by police about 10 miles away and arrested, the sentencing filing said. During questioning, he admitted to stealing the gun found in the truck and also to “kidnapping and threatening a rival gang member,” the federal prosecutor wrote.
In October 2022, he was convicted in state court in Nampa for aggravated battery, grand theft and unlawful possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to 30 years in Idaho state prison.
Now a federal judge has added more time, sentencing Escobedo for the two Oregon carjackings in 2021. He sentenced him to 15 years, with about eight years to be served concurrently with his Idaho time and another approximately six years in federal prison following the completion of his Idaho sentence.
Boccato warned that Escobedo will continue to be a danger.
“He has only become more dangerous” despite convictions and prison sentences, he wrote. “He has graduated from knives to guns and is choosing his victims indiscriminately.”
He added, “When he is finally released, he will likely still be a danger unless he is of advanced age.”
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