Death of Gabriel Granillo

On June 6, 2006, a teenage boy named Gabriel Granillo also known as Pelón was stabbed to death at Ervan Chew Park, in the Neartown district in Houston, Texas. His killer, Ashley Paige Benton, underwent a criminal murder trial which resulted in a hung jury. Benton's lawyers and the assistant Harris County district attorney agreed to give Benton probation in exchange for Benton pleading guilty to aggravated assault. Her probation was ended early in 2009, and her criminal charge was to be dismissed as part of terms of successfully completing her probation.

In 2008 Skip Hollandsworth of Texas Monthly referred to Benton as "Houston’s most famous teenage killer" and stated that the fact that the stabbing took place in the central city, and the fact that Ashley Benton was a white, Anglo teenage girl involved in gangs shocked Houstonians. The Houston Press wrote that the resulting murder trial "fascinated Houston". In 2014 Andy Warren of the Houston Chronicle listed the Granillo stabbing among the "infamous crimes in the Houston area". A 2011 novel, The Knife and the Butterfly, is based upon the incident.