Robert Guevara: Corrine Erstad Acquittal and Texas Conviction

Robert Guevara is the man tried and acquitted in the 1993 Minnesota case involving Corrine Erstad, a five-year-old who disappeared from Inver Grove Heights in 1992 and has never been found. A Dakota County jury cleared him of kidnapping, rape, and murder despite physical evidence recovered from his storage locker, in part because prosecutors could not present statistical DNA evidence under Minnesota law at the time. Three years later, in Texas, Guevara was convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual assault involving a fourteen-year-old girl and sentenced to twenty years in prison.¹

What Happened to Corrine Erstad

On the evening of June 1, 1992, Corrine Leanne Erstad went to play at a park near her family’s home in Inver Grove Heights, a suburb south of St. Paul. She was last seen around 7:30 p.m. Her mother, Mona Williams, called 911 at 9:32 p.m. to report her missing.² Corrine has never been found. She was declared legally dead in 1994.³

Guevara, then 24, was a longtime friend of Corrine’s parents and lived in a shared duplex with the family. Police focused on him quickly.

The Evidence in Guevara’s Storage Locker

Investigators executed a search warrant on a storage locker Guevara had rented and recovered the watermelon-print sundress Corrine had been wearing when she vanished. It was stained with blood and semen. They also recovered a shower curtain stained with blood and semen consistent with the DNA of both Corrine and Guevara.⁴ Police additionally found bloodstained women’s panties in the locker; those were determined to belong to an unidentified woman, not Corrine.⁵

Guevara was charged with kidnapping and held in Dakota County Jail on $500,000 bail.⁵ Kidnapping, rape, and murder charges followed. His older brother, Jerry Guevara Jr., was briefly arrested on suspicion of helping Robert avoid arrest but was released without charges.²

Why the Jury Acquitted Him in 1993

The trial, prosecuted by Dakota County Attorney Jim Backstrom, stretched over five and a half months in 1993. Defense attorney J. Anthony Torres attacked the case on several fronts. He argued the storage locker was not secure and that the evidence inside could have been planted to frame his client.⁶ Through cross-examination, Torres exposed inconsistencies in Mona Williams’s testimony and raised questions about her history of cocaine abuse and emotional problems. Torres also said the prosecution hurt its own case by presenting the bloody women’s underwear from the locker, since those panties did not belong to the child victim.⁷

The most consequential problem for the prosecution was legal. Under Minnesota law at the time, prosecutors were not permitted to present statistical evidence showing how unlikely it was that the DNA on the recovered items could have come from someone other than Guevara and Erstad. Without those statistics, Torres told jurors the scientific evidence was “open to some interpretation.” The jury acquitted Guevara on all charges in early April 1993.⁴ Backstrom later said the case “ultimately led to those limits being removed” from Minnesota law regarding DNA statistics at trial.⁸

Why Guevara Cannot Be Retried

Because of double-jeopardy protections, Guevara cannot be charged again for Corrine’s murder regardless of any new evidence that might emerge. The acquittal is final.

The Texas Aggravated Sexual Assault Conviction

In June 1996, Guevara and a co-defendant, Robert Escobedo, picked up a fourteen-year-old girl in a truck in San Antonio. According to the victim’s testimony, Guevara pulled a gun, told her he would “blow away your brains,” and forced her into a small garage apartment behind a house where Escobedo’s grandparents lived. Both men raped her repeatedly.¹

The victim reported the assault in September 1996, after a teacher noticed she was distracted in class. A jury convicted both men on two counts of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced each to twenty years on each count. The men denied the assault and claimed the victim had sought them out, but the jury found her account credible, supported by medical evidence consistent with sexual assault. Guevara appealed on six grounds, including insufficient evidence, jury misconduct, and ineffective assistance of counsel. The Court of Appeals of Texas in San Antonio overruled every issue and affirmed the conviction in May 1999.¹

Where the Erstad Case Stands Now

The Inver Grove Heights Police Department has never stopped investigating Corrine’s disappearance and continues to receive tips. Lieutenant Joshua Otis said the department’s “primary goal is to find Corrine.”²

In 2017, investigators saw a possible opening when Jerry Guevara Jr. was arrested on charges of third-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a girl for whom he had acted as a father figure after dating her mother. Law enforcement tried to negotiate with him, hoping he might share information about what Robert did to Corrine in exchange for favorable treatment. Jerry was “not receptive.” He was convicted in July 2017 of two counts of felony third-degree criminal sexual conduct and sentenced to 18 months in prison and 15 years of probation, with sex offender registration.⁹

Corrine Erstad remains classified as a missing person. Her body has never been recovered, and her case remains open.³

1
FindLaw. Guevara v. State, No. 04-98-00077-CR
2
TwinCities.com. Corrine Erstad Inver Grove Heights Girl 1992 Disappearance
3
The Charley Project. Corrine Leanne Erstad
4
Star Tribune. Legacy of Guevara Trial Still Resonates
5
Post-Bulletin. 2nd Arrest Made in Kidnap Case
6
MPR News. Backstrom
7
Star Tribune. No-Body Murder Cases Can Be Won
8
Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Retiring Dakota Co. Attorney Jim Backstrom Encourages Public Service
9
TwinCities.com. Brother of Man Acquitted in Corrine Erstad Disappearance Sentenced for Sex Abuse