STAFF REPORT.
After prosecutors put on five witnesses including law enforcement and medical professionals, jurors in the 22nd Judicial District Court sentenced Willie Griffin to life in prison Tuesday for kidnapping, raping and attempting to murder a teenage girl near Dripping Springs in 2012.
Griffin was found guilty Jan. 27 of attempted murder, three counts of aggravated sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault with serious bodily injury.
Prosecutors presented DNA evidence during the trial connecting Griffin to the “gruesome crime that left a barely live victim stabbed and naked on a rural strip of U.S. Highway 290” in northwest Hays County, the criminal district attorney’s office said in a statement.
Police said in court documents that Griffin picked up his teenage victim from a bus stop in East Austin in March 2012 before driving her to a rural area near Dripping Springs and sexually assaulted her.
After raping the victim, Griffin then strangled her, and when she regained consciousness he stabbed her multiple times in the chest, according to the victim’s testimony in court documents.
The victim survived the attack and was able to flag a car down for help.
KXAN’s cameras captured the victim’s remarks to Griffin after jurors handed down the life sentence.
“You’re a sick monster for what you did to me,” the victim told Griffin, as seen on KXAN’s 10 p.m. Jan. 28 newscast. “I didn’t deserve that. I want you to look at me. I want you to look at me, and see that what you did hurt me. You put scars on my chest.”
Griffin is also charged in Travis County with the murder of 24-year-old Elizabeth Escobar. DNA evidence has reportedly connected Griffin with Escobar’s 2011 death. Her body was set on fire and she was found in a field off Springdale Road.
Escobar’s father, Alan Yarborough, also gave Griffin a piece of his mind after the life sentence.
“I hope you spend a long, long time in jail, and know that you’re not getting out,” KXAN cameras captured Yarborough telling Griffin. “There’s no last thrill you’re going to have at the end. I hope somehow maybe you get better. Maybe somehow you learn to feel, because if you felt the gravity of the horrors that you did to these young ladies, any sane person would kill ourselves. We couldn’t live with it.”
Hays County Sherri Tibbe said in a statement the efforts of all law enforcement agents and the courage of the victims in this case ensured that justice was served.
