Ashley Esselborn: Hooters waitress asks judge to lower bail in murder case, wants to pay via OnlyFans money
WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS: A Hooters waitress accused of encouraging the brutal murder of a 23-year-old who was beaten to death with a baseball bat asked the judge to decrease her bond in order to use money from her OnlyFans account to pay for it. Ashley Esselborn, 21, asked a Texas judge to reduce her bail from $100,000 to $50,000.
She said that the money in her account would be enough to pay the reduced amount. Subscribers who want to access her X-rated content pay her $12 per month. Esselborn testified in court that she had at least $8,000 in the account from her nude photos alone, but that all of her money had been locked and she had been contacting OnlyFans corporate to get access to it, as stated by Daily Mail.
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The waitress allegedly applauded as Payton Collier, William Bell, and Ronnie Lang beat Zachary Wood at his Wichita Falls house using their hands, feet, and a bat. They were all charged with first-degree criminal murder. Wood was killed in May 2022, and Esselborn was allegedly present at the scene. The group is said to have attacked Wood because they believed he had taken their drugs and cash while they were staying at his home.
Collier informed police that in addition to encouraging the hitting, Esselborn yelled at Wood as he was being beaten and forced him to reveal the location of the stolen goods. The judge rejected the most recent plea for a reduction in her bond, which had already been lowered from $1 million to $100,000 in the spring. It is still unknown if Esselborn participated in the assault or if she merely encouraged it.
Wood was reportedly residing on Brown St with Collier and two other roommates at the time of his death, according to the Wichita Falls Police Department. According to an affidavit, officers responding to a check welfare call on May 21 at around noon discovered Wood's body in a "ransacked" home with "evidence of a massive bloodletting event having occurred, in multiple rooms."
Esselborn admitted to authorities that she witnessed the attack and assisted in throwing away bloody items afterward, and Collier backed up her account by saying she watched from the sidelines. Investigators, however, said that a witness told them that she overheard Esselborn boasting over the phone about how she had taken part in the attack on Wood and had escaped arrest. Lang pleaded guilty to the murder in September and is now incarcerated for 50 years. Lang is in prison with a $1 million bond while Bell is out on a $200,000 bond. Plea agreements have been presented to all remaining defendants.