A Texas judge handed down a 50-year prison sentence on Friday to a man who was caught stealing more than $1.2million worth of fajitas.
Gilberto Escamilla, a former employee with the Juvenile Justice Department, was charged with first-degree theft in October 2017.
The 53-year-old later tearfully pleaded guilty to theft by a public servant earlier this month.
Gilberto Escamilla, a former employee with the Juvenile Justice Department in Texas, has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for stealing $1.2million worth of fajitas last year
Escamilla, a former employee with the Juvenile Justice Department, was charged with first-degree theft in October 2017. The 53-year-old later tearfully pleaded guilty to theft by a public servant earlier this month. Judge J Manuel Banales sentences Escamilla on Friday
He also waived his right to a trial, according to Chron.com.
‘It was selfish,’ Escamilla testified. ‘It got to the point where I couldn’t control it anymore.’
He testified that what began small had spiraled out of control.
‘If it wasn’t so serious, you’d think it was a Saturday Night Live skit. But this is the real thing,’ District Attorney Luis V. Saenz told The Brownsville Herald at the time.
Prosecutors said Escamilla (pictured) ordered 800 pounds of fajitas in August 2017
Prosecutors said that on August 7, 2017, Escamilla took the day off to go to a medical appointment.
During his absence, a driver from Labatt Food Service – the Juvenile Justice Department’s meat vendor – called to verify an order they were preparing to deliver: 800 pounds of fajitas.
An employee at the department first dismissed the order as a mistake, given the fact that the facility does not serve fajitas.
It was then that the driver informed the woman on the phone that his company has been filling the fajita order to the facility for nearly a decade.
‘The receiver of the call rushes off to the supervisor and conveys to her the discussion that had been had, and that breaks the case,’ Saenz said at the time.
When Escamilla reported to work the next day, he was confronted with the discussion and admitted then to stealing fajitas for nine years.
Escamilla was immediately fired from his position and placed under arrest on August 9.
When police searched his home, they discovered his refrigerator packed with fajitas.
Law enforcement officials said that after looking through inventory records and conducting an audit at Labatt Food Service, they concluded that Escamilla had stolen $1,251,578 worth of food.
‘He would literally, on the day he ordered them, deliver them to customers he had already lined up,’ Saenz said shortly after Escamilla’s arrest.
Saenz said they were able to uncover two of his purchasers, who cooperated with their investigation.
After Escamilla’s arrest, Saenz ordered a full review of the department so new measures aimed at instituting new ‘procedures, controls and safeguards’ into the system could be implemented.
The Juvenile Justice Department where Escamilla worked is pictured above
Law enforcement officials said that after looking through inventory records and conducting an audit at Labatt Food Service, they concluded that Escamilla had stolen $1,251,578 worth of food (file image)