Murder-for-hire suspects intended to assault, not murder, victim
By JAMES GELUSO, Californian staff writer
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jgeluso@bakersfield.com | Thursday, Jan 3 2008 2:36 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Jan 3 2008 2:39 PM
The suspects in a murder-for-hire plot all claimed they only meant for the intended victim to be beat up, not killed, according to police reports of interviews released Thursday.
Jesus Estrada had been asked to carry out the attack by his boss at Coast Roofing, Jim Skiba.
Skiba, in turn, blamed his stepbrother, Francis Giangrossi. Skiba said he tried to refuse, but Giangrossi told Skiba to remember that Giangrossi owns the house Skiba lives in.
Giangrossi, Skiba and Estrada all said they meant only for Steve Stewart to be beat up.
About two months after Skiba approached Estrada, Estrada told his cousin, Ulises Espino, about the job. Espino said they should go carry it out that night, Nov. 5.
Estrada said he had been affiliated with tagging crews in Orange County, but was not part of a gang. Espino, on the other hand, was part of the 11357, an East Bakersfield street gang, and had “Colonia Bakers” tattooed across his biceps, according to the police report of his death and autopsy. He was described as “crazy” by the other men involved in the plot.
It was Espino who broke through Stewart’s front window with a gun and cranberry-juice jug filled with gasoline. Stewart, who had wired his house with sensors hooked to radios, heard Espino coming and shot him twice with a shotgun. Espino died about three hours later at Kern Medical Center.
Espino fingered Skiba, even making a call to Skiba from his iPhone, pretending he had been released.
After Skiba was arrested, he blamed Giangrossi, telling deputies he had been pressured into having someone beat up Stewart.
A few days after the attack, Giangrossi tried to kill himself, leaving two suicide notes, according to the report. The contents of the notes were not in the report.