Death penalty sought for alleged killer

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The Travis County District Attorney's Office said it intends to seek the death penalty for a man accused of raping and stabbing a 17-year-old student to death in her East Austin apartment May 31.

Police arrested Areli Carbajal Escobar, 30, just days after they found Bianca Maldonado's body while initially responding to assist an EMS call at the Huntington Meadows apartment complex in the 7000 Decker Lane. Maldonado lived with her mother, sister and 1-year-old son.

Escobar is being charged with capital murder in the death of the LBJ High School student.

Austin police said Maldonado "put up a fight for her life" and the life of her son when a stranger attacked her in the middle of the night.

Maldonado's son was in the apartment at the time of the attack, police said. The child was treated and released from the hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening.

The suspect's girlfriend heard the attack on her cell phone when she called him after finding him gone from his apartment, police said. She alerted police, which led to the arrest of her boyfriend.

The Travis County District Attorney's Office said the trial could happen as early as next year, depending on how everything works out.