A Texas man has pleaded not guilty to a capital murder charge in the deaths of his pregnant girlfriend and her preborn child in September 2020. Homicide is the leading cause of death for pregnant women in the U.S.
A “toxic relationship”
Joel David Chavez III stands accused of killing Gracy Espinoza and her baby and was arrested a year following their deaths. Her body was found near a baseball field and it was found that she died from asphyxiation and multiple stab wounds.
According to the affidavit, Chavez and Espinoza had a “toxic” relationship and Espinoza had previously told Child Protective Services that he was “controlling and toxic.” He is the son of a retired Laredo Police Department lieutenant. When police went to the couple’s apartment after finding Espinoza’s body, a neighbor told them he had heard the couple arguing the night before and heard “a loud banging noise before everything became quiet.”
Chavez appeared in court on April 6 and his final pre-trial hearing is scheduled for May 16 with jury selection set for June 12. He faces five to 99 years or life in prison if convicted, along with a $10,000 maximum fine.
Tragically, Espinoza isn’t the only pregnant woman to be allegedly murdered by her partner in recent years and months.
An epidemic of homicide against pregnant women
Virginia man Marcus Levail Murphy was sentenced to life in prison in November for the deaths of his Houston girlfriend and her preborn twins. Police believe he flew to Houston after learning of the pregnancy. After landing in Houston, he went to the apartment of his girlfriend Ebony Harris and stabbed her to death before going back to the airport for a return flight. Murphy already had twins with his girlfriend in Virginia and believed Harris to be pregnant by another man.
Billy Bennett Adams III, a Florida man, shot his five-months pregnant girlfriend Alana Sims just days after he was acquitted of murdering two men. According to police, he allegedly shot her to death outside of her car because he did not want to be in her life and was not ready to have a child. Her young son was sleeping in the car at the time of the murder and was unharmed. Adams is claiming self-defense in his trial.
A man in Georgia stands accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend. Diamonte Haithcoats was arrested outside a barber shop on February 27, 2023, and charged with the murder of Shaniyah Rodriguez, who was shot in the head. She died two days after arriving at the hospital, but her baby, Millianni, survived after being delivered via emergency C-section. She suffered brain damage but is expected to fully recover.
In Illinois, Deundrea Holloway is accused of decapitating his pregnant ex-girlfriend Liese A. Dodd in the summer of 2022. He faces charges of first-degree murder, intentional homicide of an unborn child, and other crimes.
A Florida man, Reginald Perry, was sentenced to two life sentences in prison this month for the murder of Felicia Jones and her unborn child when she was just days away from giving birth in 2021. That September, he asked her to clarify the baby’s due date, then three days later picked her up at one in the morning, took her to a park, shot her in the head and threw her phone in the water. He had previously googled information on “cerebellum” and “how police can track a phone in the water” and had a cousin buy a gun.
And the trial of a Kentucky man, Derron Fuller, got underway this month. He is charged in the 2015 death of 8-month-pregnant girlfriend Rochelle Stubblefield and her baby. He was not charged until June 2020. Court records show that Fuller “admitted to killing a female who was eight months pregnant with Fuller’s child” during a phone conversation. He told them “he was afraid of paying child support so he choked and stabbed her in the temple.”
The research is clear
Research shows that women in the U.S. who are pregnant or have recently given birth are more likely to die by homicide carried out by an intimate partner than to die from pregnancy-related causes. Researchers from the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor have found that U.S. women who are pregnant or were pregnant in the past 42 days die by murder at more than twice the rate that they die of bleeding or placental disorders, which are the leading causes of pregnancy-related deaths.
In fact, simply becoming pregnant increases a woman’s risk of death by homicide. Females between the ages of 10 and 44 who are pregnant or had been pregnant in the last year are murdered at a 16% higher rate than those who are not pregnant. For Black women, it’s even more dangerous to be pregnant; those who are pregnant or were recently pregnant have up to a nearly three-fold higher risk of dying by homicide than those who are not pregnant.
Abortion advocates have claimed that abortion could have saved these women’s lives, as many murdered pregnant women are killed for refusing abortion. Women in abusive relationships should not be forced to have abortions so they can suddenly live without fear of being murdered — which they would likely live with regardless. Women and their children deserve to be freed from abusive situations and brought to safety.
If you are a victim of domestic violence, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline, or call 1-800-799-SAFE.
