Gerardo Flores was born in 1986 and lived in Lufkin, Texas. He was a teenager when he became involved in a relationship with Erica Basoria, who was 16 years old at the time of the incident. There’s limited publicly available information about his early life, education, or background prior to the crime.

Flores and Basoria were reportedly expecting twins when the events that led to his conviction unfolded. At the time, Basoria was five months pregnant. According to later court testimonies, she had learned that she was beyond the legal window to have a medical abortion and became increasingly distressed. She reportedly attempted to induce a miscarriage on her own by hitting herself repeatedly in the stomach.

According to court records, Basoria eventually asked Flores to help end the pregnancy by stepping on her abdomen. Flores initially refused, but later complied under pressure from Basoria. This act would ultimately result in his arrest and conviction under Texas' recently passed fetal homicide law.

Flores was not reported to have had a prior criminal record, and his actions appeared to be driven not by malice, but by emotional pressure and desperation shared between the couple. However, legal consequences in Texas for the killing of a fetus, regardless of motive, are among the strictest in the United States.

In 2004, Erica Basoria was 16 years old and five months pregnant with twins. After being informed by her doctor that it was too late for her to obtain a legal abortion, she became increasingly desperate. As noted in court testimony, she repeatedly struck herself in the stomach in an attempt to end the pregnancy on her own. When those attempts failed, she turned to her boyfriend, Gerardo Flores, and asked him to step on her abdomen.

Although he initially refused, Flores eventually agreed after persistent requests. The result was a miscarriage of the twins. Flores later admitted to police that he stepped on Basoria’s stomach at her request. During an altercation the same night, he also said he might have accidentally struck her in the face, though he denied any pattern of abuse. Basoria told police that Flores was not abusive and that the events were consensual in the context of their relationship.

However, during the trial, prosecutors argued that Basoria’s bruised face and swollen lip suggested a violent assault and claimed she was trying to protect Flores by minimizing the extent of what happened. The court accepted this narrative.

Texas’ 2003 fetal homicide law had recently come into effect and allowed prosecutors to charge individuals with capital murder for the killing of an unborn child. However, the law specifically excluded the pregnant woman herself from prosecution, even if she played a role in ending the pregnancy. Therefore, Flores was solely charged with two counts of capital murder.

In 2005, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 40 years, since prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty. Flores later appealed the ruling, challenging the constitutionality of Texas’ fetal protection law, but the appeal was rejected.

This case drew national attention due to the controversial nature of the law and its implications. Critics of the prosecution argued that Flores was criminalized for what they viewed as a mutual decision between two desperate teenagers, while supporters claimed the law was correctly applied to protect unborn life.