KANSAS CITY, Mo. (TCD) — A 31-year-old man will spend decades in prison for fatally beating his 24-year-old mother and assaulting her 4-year-old daughter in 2022.
According to a press release issued March 19 by the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office.Jose Escalante-Corchado pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree assault, and the judge sentenced him to 30 years in prison for each conviction. The defendant's sentences will also run concurrently.
On January 15, 2022, at approximately 5:49 p.m., officers with the Kansas City Missouri State Police responded to 7324 Wabash Ave. and conducted a welfare check, charging documents state. Responding officers met the victim's father outside the home. When officers went inside, they found the victim, identified as Mackenzie Hopkins, dead and submerged in a bathtub, according to WDAF-TV. Police also reportedly found the 4-year-old victim lying in bed with serious head injuries.
According to charging documents, officials removed Hopkins from the bathtub and found her with blunt force trauma to her face and head. The 4-year-old girl was reportedly taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
Dispatchers received a 911 call from Hopkins' phone number around 6 a.m. that day. The call remained open, but dispatchers could hear fighting in the background, according to charging documents.
During a search of the home, investigators found a large amount of blood and traces of blood along the floor, charging documents state. They also found a bloodstain with the word “ARIAT” written on it, the name of a famous cowboy boot manufacturer.
Police reportedly spoke with one of the victim's friends on Shawnee Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas. Detectives found a pair of cowboy boots near the door, according to charging documents. The victim's friend said the items belonged to her boyfriend, Escalante-Corchado.
According to charging documents, detectives spotted the truck outside the home and eventually tracked the vehicle using surveillance footage. On surveillance video, an unidentified man, later identified as Escalante-Corchado, was reportedly seen running from near Hopkins' home on the day the victim died. He is then seen driving into a gas station in a white truck. According to prosecutors, the defendant later admitted it was he who was at the gas station.
Escalante-Corchado reportedly told investigators he knew the victim and her daughter, but failed to provide a reasonable explanation as to why his truck was near the victim's home.
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