True, but he wouldn’t be ordering so much if he wasn’t selling (most of) it, either.
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Here’s an article in his local paper from the time of the arrest.
He was selling them to others.
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Right?
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explains that
Theft of more than $300,000 is automatically a first-degree felony in Texas. On top of that, Texas treats theft by a public servant differently from other kinds of theft. The theory behind that is that theft committed by a private individual harms the person or people who were stolen from; but theft by a public servant harms the taxpayers who pay their salary, and harms society at large by eroding trust in those who’ve agreed to serve us. In cases where a public employee is accused of stealing less than $300,000, charges involving public servants using their official positions to facilitate the crime are automatically escalated to the next-highest level of felony. In Escamilla’s case, the value of the meat he stole meant that it was already the highest class of felony—which helps explain why his sentence was so high.
Still, Escamilla is 53 years old, which means that a 50-year prison sentence is essentially a life sentence for a non-violent crime. The ACLU estimates that there are 3,278 people in this country facing life without parole for non-violent offenses, a fate the organization describes as “living death.” Escamilla, of course, wasn’t sentenced to life without parole—with good behavior, he could find himself serving only half of his sentence, which would see him released sometime after his 78th birthday. Which means that, while meat theft is a quirky crime and Escamilla’s situation is newsworthy, the stakes of it—both his life sentence and the $1.2 million stolen from taxpayers—make it a little less chuckle-worthy than it seemed last fall.
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It’s his fault for being an idiot. He should have laundered billions for international drug cartels. That just gets you a fine, no prison time.
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He’s the Bernie Madoff of fajitas.
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Don’t you hate it when you can’t control your love for money? It’s a terrible affliction and I’m the victim here!
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If this guy had been doing it to maximize profits of his faceless corporation, and instead of directly profiting, received it “legitimately” as salary, incentives, and bonus drawn from the corporation payroll, his only penalty (possibly) would’ve been being made to find a new job. But certainly not jail time.
Why hasn’t anyone –– anyone –– from Wells Fargo gone to jail?
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Paragraph 4 of the post.
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Fajita rustling! Now it all makes sense. Texas has always taken meat theft seriously, in the old days he’d just get the noose out on the prairie.
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I think they mean the prison he’s in now.
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Let the punishment fit the crime.
Bon appetit!
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Such as Tino De Angelis, master mind of the Salad Oil Swindle served less then 6 months in jail upon conviction.
“In 1962, De Angelis was responsible for a major financial scam, attempting to corner the market for soybean oil, which can be used in salad dressing. In the aftermath of the Salad Oil Scandal, investors in 51 banks learned that he had swindled them out of about $175 million in total (approximately $1.2 billion in 2000 dollars).”
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Fajitas seem to be the one thing that cannot be stolen without consequences:
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Wait! Something doesn’t add up here. In what backwards hell-hole do fajitas come as already-assembled, easily re-sold units? Perhaps burritos can be pre-cooked, flash frozen, and package as such, but fajitas?
I’ve only ever seen fajitas served as:
- some sort of grilled meat or seafood (optional)
- thinly sliced and grilled bell pepper of any colour
- thinly sliced and grilled onions
- sour cream
- shredded cheddar cheese
- refried beans
- other ingredients: jalapeno or other hoter pepper, fresh or pickled or grilled; olives, typically green; pumpkin seeds, roasted & salted; hot sauce; salsa, and more.
All wrapped in a large flour tortilla, hopefully lightly toasted.
Perhaps the shipment was indeed 800 lbs of the various ingredients, which he split up into sellable units. Or maybe it’s 800 individual kits that make 800 x 1 lb fajitas?
Just makes no sense to me.
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When I’ve seen these kits, they come in ~5 lb bags of pre-cooked meat & veggies, tortillas, and salsa/sour cream/guacamole in separate bags. Heat up the hot stuff in a microwave, likewise for the tortillas, serve with the condiments and you’ve got cafeteria “fajitas” for about 20 people.
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I was probably just 5 years, before they applied the Non-white Defendant Multiplier.
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Digging through a couple articles it seems as if it was just fajita meat. Probably a “lesser cut” of beef already cut into strips. It also appears that the man wasn’t ordering 800 pounds every day but rather 800 pounds every time he ordered. This makes the idea of him offloading the meat to restaurants an other outside customers seem a little more reasonable.
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My Dad would’ve punished me by making me eat all 800 lbs.
No man can eat 50 eggs 800 lbs fajitas.
