Life in prison was the sentence given a 30-year-old man for assaulting two women in 2011 outside a Fort Worth bar and forcing a third woman at gunpoint to drive him from the scene.
Robert Espinosa Jr. was convicted Wednesday of three cases of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to a news release from the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
According to trial testimony, Espinosa approached two women leaving a north-side bar and asked them for a ride. They refused and he was enraged. He hit one woman in the head with a beer bottle and pistol whipped the other.
A third woman came out of the bar and he forced her at gunpoint to drive him from the scene, according to testimony.
The jury deliberated for about two hours before convicting him on the three charges, the DA’s office said.
During the punishment phase, jurors were told that Espinosa was a gang member with prior felony convictions for aggravated assault and aggravated robbery.
Prosecutors also showed evidence that Espinosa assaulted another inmate with a "shank" while awaiting trial in jail, the DA’s office said.
The panel deliberated about an hour and 20 minutes before sentencing him to life, 50 and 25 years in prison in the respective cases.
"This defendant has demonstrated that, if given the opportunity, he will commit future acts of violence," said Assistant District Attorney Tim Rodgers. "This jury did what was necessary to protect the community."
-- Bill Miller
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