Man sentenced in model’s death where body was hidden in concrete

A 49-year-old man was sentenced to between 10 and 25 years in prison on Tuesday for his role in the 2019 killing of a model whose body was found in the desert encased in concrete.

Christopher Prestipino pleaded guilty in March to second-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping for the killing of 24-year-old Esmeralda Gonzalez. Surveillance footage captured Gonzalez, who appeared disoriented, wandering a neighborhood on May 31, 2019, where Gonzalez lived with his roommate, 43-year-old Casandra Garrett.

Gonzalez ended up at Prestipino’s home, where a witness said he gave her methamphetamine, prosecutors have said. Prestipino was accused of tying Gonzalez up in his bedroom and strangling her.

Prosecutors have accused Prestipino of taking extensive measures to hide Gonzalez’s body after killing her “with a poisonous substance and/or by strangulation,” according to court records.

During his sentencing hearing on Tuesday, Prestipino apologized to Gonzalez’s family but attempted to place blame for the killing on his co-defendant. Prestipino had entered what is known as an Alford plea, meaning he admitted only that prosecutors had enough evidence to prove he is guilty.

“My involvement was after the fact,” Prestipino said Tuesday. “I don’t believe this death was intentional, but like the medical examiner, I still don’t know the exact cause of death. I do regret ever meeting the co-defendant.”

Like Prestipino, Garrett initially faced murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges, but prosecutors reduced the charges to one count of voluntary manslaughter in February 2021, court records show.

A sentencing hearing for Garrett is scheduled for May 23.

Prestipino’s defense attorney, Craig Mueller, declined to comment after Tuesday’s hearing, other than to say the “facts speak for themselves.” Mueller has said Prestipino pleaded guilty to avoid a life sentence.

Gonzalez, who worked in the adult entertainment industry and had more than 300,000 followers on Instagram, was missing for nearly nearly five months. Her body was found Oct. 8, 2019, in a desert area and inside a 250-gallon water tank that had been covered with concrete and wood, about 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas near Glendale, according to court records.

The Clark County coroner’s office could not determine her cause of death.

Another woman, Lisa Mort, pleaded guilty to accessory to murder and was sentenced in 2020 to between two and five years in prison after she reportedly tried to warn Prestipino that homicide detectives were investigating Gonzalez’s death.

Gonzalez was kind and jovial, and had big dreams for her life, her brother, Juan Gonzalez Madera, said during the sentencing hearing on Tuesday. She talked about one day becoming an attorney after volunteering as a peer counselor with the Clark County Law Foundation’s Trial by Peers program.

“It pains me to know that she will never have the opportunity to go to law school and protect the rights of others,” Gonzalez Madera said.

Gonzalez Madera said that he is still haunted by the thought of his sister’s last moments and said that she was “deprived of her humanity” when she was killed.

“Learning that my sister was deceased deeply bruised my heart, but learning how she died shattered my heart forever,” he said.

District Judge Carli Kierny ordered Prestipino to pay $4,909 in restitution. Before ordering the sentence, Kierny thanked Gonzalez’s brother for “giving a voice to Esmeralda.”

“Throughout this process I haven’t known much about her, and she sounds like a wonderful person,” the judge said. “I am so sorry that you lost her in this way.”

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.