DES MOINES, Iowa – A date has been set for the retrial of a man charged with the murders of a Des Moines woman and her two children after a mistrial was declared in the first trial back in 2020.
The retrial for Marvin Escobar-Orellana has been scheduled for December 13, 2021, according to an order signed by District Court Judge David Porter and filed Tuesday.
Escobar-Orellana is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the 2019 deaths of 29-year-old Rossibeth Flores-Rodriguez, 11-year-old Grecia Daniela Alvarado-Flores, and five-year-old Ever Jose Mejia-Flores.
Flores-Rodriguez and her children lived in the same home as Escobar-Orellana but occupied the basement while Escobar-Orellana and his family lived on the main floor.
Escobar-Orellana has claimed Flores-Rodriguez shot and killed her two children and that he shot the woman in self-defense.
During the first trial, Escobar-Orellana’s wife testified that she witnessed him shoot Flores-Rodriguez in the head.
The jury told the judge they were able to reach a verdict on the murder of Flores-Rodriguez but could not come to an agreement on the children’s murders. That’s what prompted the mistrial.
Federal immigration officials confirm Escobar-Orellana, also known as Marvin Esquivel-Lopez, is an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala. He had been deported from the U.S. twice before. He was convicted of illegal entry into the United States in 2010.
