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Attorneys presented opening statements in the murder trial over the 2023 SAPD shooting of Melissa Perez. Two former officers are charged with murder and a third is charged with aggravated assault over the shooting.
The three defense teams emphasized the right the former officers Eleazar Alejandra, Alfred Flores, and Nathaniel Villalobos had to protect themselves and each other when they believed they were in danger.
Prosecutors from the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office said the officers repeatedly took actions or made statements that downplayed Perez’s apparent threat to them in an attempt to undermine those claims of self-defense.
Firefighters contacted SAPD on the night of June 23, 2023, after Perez was found tampering with her apartment complex’s fire alarm system. Perez, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, told firefighters that the FBI was using the alarms to spy on her.
After officers approached her and one said, “Hey lady, get over here,” Perez fled into her apartment and locked her door.
When an officer tried to enter her home through a window following failed attempts to kick down her door, she threw a glass candlestick through her open window that hit him on the elbow.
He then told her she was “gonna get shot,” to which Perez responded, “shoot me.”
Following this incident, Flores, Alejandro, and Villalobos arrived on scene. Officers continued to try to alternately convince her to come outside and get into her apartment. On multiple instances, Perez ran at officers swinging a hammer, after which officers repeatedly backed away from her open window.
The second to last time Perez did this, Eleazar shot at her five times, missing. When she again ran towards officers with the hammer, Eleazar, Flores, and Villalobos all opened fire, and shots from Eleazar and Flores hit and killed her.
Prosecutors said all of this happened over the course of two and a half hours, and officers repeatedly used unnecessary force against Perez’s home and eventually Perez herself.
And Assistant District Attorney Daryl Harris said the officers demonstrated that Perez did not make them fear for their lives.
“I believe the evidence will show from the recording on his camera [Villalobos] says, ‘I don’t give a damn about the hammer,’” Harris said. “‘I'm six-two. I'm a hard charger. It doesn't concern me. I can handle it.’”
At the time, Villalobos was blocking Perez’s front door, which he incorrectly believed was unlocked, with his foot, despite his colleagues telling him to retreat from the door after she had run towards him.
Harris also said officers didn’t even have the right to be trying to enter Perez’s home without a warrant or without reasonable belief that she was attempting to destroy evidence or flee.
Defense attorneys said when she fled officers into her home, fleeing arrest, that gave officers the right to enter her home.
And they said Perez did in fact pose an immediate bodily threat to officers.
“They had a right to go home to their wives,” Goss said. “They had a right to go home to their children. They had a right not to be a victim. They had a right not to have June 23, 2023, be the end of any of their watches.”
And defense attorneys said their clients and numerous other officers on scene demonstrated their belief that she posed a threat when they all drew their firearms on her.
Attorney Nico LaHood said the only reason other officers didn’t fire their weapons was because Flores, Eleazar, and Villalobos were in the way. He said if the prosecution believed their three clients should be charged, so should every other officer who drew their weapon on Perez.
The defense attorneys added that had Perez hit any of the officers with the hammer, which they said she nearly did more than once, the DA’s Office would be trying her for either attempted capital murder or capital murder.
Defense attorneys also threw the initial arrest warrants against the three men into doubt, saying they were issued too quickly for there to have been a thorough investigation of the facts.
Following opening statements, the first witnesses were questioned and presented to the jury.
The two murder charges carry possible sentences of up to 99 years in prison. The aggravated assault charge carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years.
The trial will continue on Monday, October 13, and is expected to last for several weeks.
