No Small Favor: The Murder of Oscar Velesquez
- Gina Westfall
- Mar 21
- 8 min read
No Small Favor: The Murder of Oscar Velesquez
Oscar Velesquez was a twenty-two-year-old Mexican immigrant who had found success as an over-the-road trucker in the United States. Part of a large, loving family, Oscar was a hardworking young man who set a good example for his younger cousins. He had no criminal activity and demonstrated how to make the “American Dream” a reality. He had recently purchased a white Chevy Camaro and often had cash on him. He was doing well for himself. In the spring of 2000, he had also met a young lady he was quite fond of, Regina DeFrancisco.
Regina DeFrancisco was born July 17th, 1982, in Chicago, Illinois. Two years later, on May 23rd, 1984, Regina became a big sister to Margaret DeFrancisco. The girls did not have a happy home or childhood. Their father was physically abusive to their mother. Their father, while abusing drugs, once hit their mother with a vacuum cleaner. An order of protection was filed, but their father disobeyed it and set their apartment on fire. Soon after he went to prison and the girls never saw him again. They were about seven years of age the last time they saw their father.
Their mother worked two jobs to provide for them, but that was typically still not adequate. The girls often went without their basic needs being met. Their mother was neglectful and utilized excessive physical punishment. A string of boyfriends had been accused of sexually abusing the girls, but their mother largely ignored the allegations. In fact, she married one man whom Regina had made several allegations of sexual abuse against. Margaret failed the second grade, and a nine-year-old Regina attempted suicide.
Once in their teenage years, the girls were hanging out with a rough crowd on the south side of Chicago. Regina, now eighteen, had a boyfriend with gang affiliations. Margaret, now sixteen years old, was her best friend. Regina happened to be the only person home when her boyfriend’s home was raided, and she caught a drug charge as a result. Leaving the courthouse, she met a new guy. This guy offered her a ride in his white Chevy Camaro. That is how she met Oscar Velesquez.
In May of 2000, Regina needed money. Allegedly, it was to help her real boyfriend get out of jail on gang-related charges. She had her little sister Margaret call her new boyfriend, Oscar, and ask for the money. Margaret called him and told him that Regina had been falsely arrested and needed $1000 for bail. She promised that Regina would pay it back. Oscar was eager to help his new girlfriend. He gave Margaret the money to help Regina out.
Over the next few weeks, Oscar started to get suspicious and wanted his money back. Regina tried to make excuses. It worked at first, but Oscar was growing tired. She had hoped that he would be a new ATM for her, but that wasn’t working out. He wasn’t quite the fool she had thought, and he wanted his money back. She and Margaret had to come up with another plan to calm Oscar down.
On June 6th, 2000, Margaret called another friend, fifteen-year-old Veronica Garcia, and asked her to borrow a gun. She said they needed it to scare Oscar. Veronica agreed to bring the gun over. Regina called Oscar and told him that he could collect on his debt that night. There is some speculation that she told him that she was going to pay him the cash that night, but there are other versions of the story that state she promised him a threesome with her and Margaret. Either way, Oscar told his uncle at 7:30 pm that night that he had last minute plans come up. That was the last time his family would talk to him.
On the night of June 6th, 2000, police on the south side of Chicago received a call about a fire in an alley. The caller soon called back to report the fire was a person on fire. The person was an unidentified Hispanic male. Nearby the body was an empty body of nail polish remover. There was no identification on the body. The body was wrapped in a floral white sheet with some blood that had not been burned completely. The medical examiner was able to determine that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the back of the head.
The investigator’s first step was to identify the body. After a few days, on June 8th, the family of Oscar Velesquez reported him as missing. They had not seen or talked to him since June 6th, 2000. His mother was able to identify his body. Now that investigators knew who their victim was, they could move forward trying to determine who would want Oscar dead. It was clear that the scene was not the murder site, but a dump site.
Oscar’s family asked for his personal effects, stating he always wore a chain and usually had money on him. Additionally, the man drove a white Chevy Camaro. None of these items were found. This led authorities to believe that motive may be robbery. One of Oscar’s family members thought he remembered seeing Oscar’s car being driven the day before by two young girls. Another stated he had been seeing a girl named Regina DeFrancisco. Investigators next step was to find the girls driving the Camaro and talk to Regina.
The Chevy Camaro was found; however, it provided very little evidence. It was torched. It certainly didn’t seem to be a coincidence. Whomever had lit the car ablaze most likely had killed Oscar and lit him on fire as well to cover up their evil deeds. But who would do this and why? Was the car the murder scene? Was Oscar transported in his own vehicle to the dump site?
Oscar’s cellphone records showed that on the night of his death he had been in contact with Regina DeFrancisco, the last person he had talked to that night. She had been in contact with him quite a bit in the last month. She was jumping to the top of the investigators list of persons of interest in the case. Police reached out to question her. Regina had a minor criminal background and gang affiliation, but was she really capable of cold-blooded murder?
Regina was interviewed in her home by detectives. She seemed surprised that Oscar was dead. She admitted that Oscar was at her home the night of June 6th, 2000. She said he stopped by around 8 pm but left soon after. She said that Margaret was with her all night that night. Margaret corroborated her alibi. Regina points the finger at her ex-boyfriend, a member of the Latin Kings gang, stating he may have been jealous of her dating Oscar. Detectives were able to rule him out, however.
The detectives were able to get a search warrant for the home because neighbors stated that they saw the girls loading something large into a white Chevy Camaro. The neighbors also place another teenage girl with the sisters.
On June 15th, 2000, the search warrant was executed. In the home, the detectives find a plethora of physical evidence. In the linen closet, bedsheets of the same pattern that Oscar’s body was wrapped in were found. Substantial amounts of blood splatter were found on the basement stairs and collected as evidence. These were later matched to Oscar. Luminol tests demonstrated a large amount of blood was once present and attempted to be cleaned in the basement. A shell casing matching the type of bullet that Oscar was shot with was also found. Detectives found the crime scene.
Who is the third girl? The third girl was identified as Veronica Garcia. She was brought to the station with her parents and cooperated in exchange for a plea bargain. She admitted to providing the gun for what she believed to be a robbery. She told detectives about the $1000 scheme the girls played on Oscar and how Oscar was now demanding the money back. Veronica told detectives that as Regina led Oscar down the basement stairs, Margaret followed. She then shot him once in the back of the head. Regina took his wallet, cash, and silver chain. They then rolled his body in a pre-laid out plastic wrap and bedsheet, put his body in the car, dumped it, and set it on fire.
On June 29th, 2000, warrants for Regina and Margaret DeFranscico were issued. Only the girls had fled. Their mother refused to cooperate in their capture. Two teenage girls were no fugitives of the law. They would remain that way for almost two entire years! Regina and Margaret were eventually features on America’s Most Wanted.
On March 24th, 2002, Margaret DeFrancisco was arrested in Rockford, Illinois, where she had been staying with relatives. Regina was captured on October 18th, 2002, in Dallas, Texas, after a traffic stop involving a high-speed chase.
The girls went to trial together, with two separate juries, in July of 2004. Both pled not guilty because of self-defense. Their version of the story was that Oscar had a gun and tried to shoot Regina and threatened her over the $1000 she had conned him out of. Margaret shot him in defense of her sister, according to the girls. The forensic evidence was presented, which was damning to the defense. Veronica Garcia testified against the sisters in exchange for a five-year sentence.
Regina DeFranscico’s jury found her guilty. The mitigating factors of her childhood were taken into consideration with her sentence, but so were the aggravating factors including the heinousness of the crime. She was sentenced to thirty-five years in prison. Because she was not the person who pulled the trigger, her sentence was expected to be less than Margaret’s, despite her being older. She was still convicted based on the felony murder laws.
Margaret DeFranscico’s jury could not reach a verdict, however. One of eleven jurors could not find her guilty. Her trial ended in a mistrial. Margaret, who was only sixteen at the time of the crime, would be tried again. While Margaret had been out on bail, she had become pregnant and became a mom. Her second trial started in November 2004. This time, Margaret was found guilty and sentenced to forty-six years in prison. On appeals, this sentence has been reduced to thirty years.
This case brings many questions to light. How did the horrific childhood of the DeFrancisco girls influence this crime? Both girls will be eligible for parole in about ten years. Will they be able to handle like outside of an institution after spending their entire adult life inside? Is it possible that there was a self-defense component? I don’t think it’s likely myself, but only the people in that basement that night know for sure. How do we help people like Regina and Margaret from becoming cold-blooded killers? How do we protect people like Oscar from becoming a victim?
References:
Killer Siblings: DeFrancisco Oxygen Channel
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