SAN ANTONIO – The 2023 police shooting of Melissa Perez — a case that drew national attention — went before a jury on Friday afternoon for the first time.
Eleazar Alejandro, Alfred Flores and Nathaniel Villalobos have each been charged in connection with Perez’s death during a mental health call at her Southwest Side apartment. SAPD has since terminated all three officers from the force.
Two days after a feisty pretrial hearing, the prosecution and the defense sparred once more on Day 1 of the ex-officers’ trial Friday inside the Cadena-Reeves Justice Center.
KSAT livestreamed the more-than-five hours of court proceedings on Friday. The trial is expected to resume at 10 a.m. on Monday.
Below is a timeline of events from Friday’s proceedings.
12:04 p.m. - Judge Ron Rangel, the presiding judge in this case, arrived. The court took their seats.
12:46 p.m. - Jurors arrived in the courtroom. Rangel subsequently swore them in.
1:04 p.m. - Prosecutor David Lunan read indictments for former SAPD officers Alfred Flores, Eleazar Alejandro and Nathaniel Villalobos. All three defendants pleaded not guilty.
1:13 p.m. - Prosecutor Daryl Harris began the state’s opening statements.
1:43 p.m. - “You will have the ‘who’ that did ‘what,’ to ‘whom.’ When they did it, where they did it, how they did it,” Harris said to jurors. “Such that, at that time, Mr. Lunan, Mr. Escobar and myself, we’re going to respond right back here to this spot, and we’re going to ask you for your verdict of guilty on each and every count of every indictment. Let’s get started.”
1:43 p.m. - Jason Goss, Villalobos’ defense attorney, began opening statements. Villalobos was charged with aggravated assault by a public servant.
1:45 p.m. – “What did that prosecutor do?” Goss said, referring to Harris, as he grabbed a hammer from a nearby desk. “I’ve never seen somebody justify a woman running at a person with a hammer and go, ‘Well, I mean, they should have just backed up. They should have backed off.’ I’ve never seen it. I’ve never seen it.”
2:02 p.m. - Goss told jurors that Perez had “no right” to stay in her apartment after allegedly hitting a different responding officer with a candle on the night she was shot.
“They have the right,” Goss said, referring to the officers on trial. “They did what they had to do to go home to their families — the same thing every officer does and the same thing every officer promises. And, at the end of this trial, you’re going to see that all of that is true."
2:03 p.m. - Goss then deferred to Nico LaHood, a fellow defense attorney for Villalobos.
2:13 p.m. - LaHood made an appeal to the jury.
“And so, now, it’s up to you,” LaHood told jurors. “Because when we said in jury selection, ‘This is a system of the people, by the people and for the people.’ And so, we’re glad that it’s you making this decision, not the government. And we’re going to ask you to consider it all, the totality of the circumstances and then the investigation after, as Jason (Goss) talked about.”
2:14 p.m. - Mario Del Prado, a defense attorney for Alejandro, began opening statements on behalf of his client. Alejandro is one of two officers charged with murder in connection with Perez’s death.
“One second. One breath. One heartbeat,” Del Prado began. “That’s the time that Eleazar Alejandro had to make a decision in this case, OK? And he had to make that decision because he was faced with a life or death situation. It wasn’t his death; it was of his two partners (Flores and Villalobos).
“He was acting in defense of them because the evidence is going to show that he was right on the other side of the railing of that balcony, OK?” Del Prado continued. “He was acting selflessly to protect his fellow brothers.”
2:35 p.m. - Ben Sifuentes, a co-defense attorney for Eleazar Alejandro, continued opening remarks.
“Eleazar Alejandro said he fired because he feared that Melissa Perez was going to throw that hammer through the window,” Sifuentes said, in part, while holding a hammer. “If he reasonably believed that the hammer was going to be thrown through that window, at a distance of three-to-five feet away, you can see why he reasonably feared this hammer was going to kill his sergeant (Flores).”
2:40 p.m. - Flores’ defense team told Rangel that they were going to reserve their opening statements.
2:41 p.m. - Rangel gave jurors a short break from proceedings.
Watch the full opening statements from Friday’s proceedings below.
3:04 p.m. - Court proceedings resumed. The prosecution called Linda Flores, its first witness, to the stand.
Flores is a custodian of records for the San Antonio Police Department.
Harris asked Flores several typical procedural questions regarding her duties in this case. The prosecution then passed the witness.
3:18 p.m. - Goss and Sifuentes began asking Flores questions.
3:22 p.m. - With Flores on the stand, Sifuentes asked her if there is a way for her to see whether or not SAPD Chief William McManus looked at files in another sergeant’s prosecution guide.
While she said it would be possible to see who viewed what, Flores said she does not have any knowledge that McManus looked specifically at video in that sergeant’s prosecution guide.
3:24 p.m. - Harris objected to Sifuentes’ line of questioning.
“She is the wrong witness for it,” Harris told the court. “Hers is assuring that the data is kept in the normal course of business in the San Antonio Police Department.”
3:25 p.m. - Sifuentes asked Harris if “he was through.”
“For now,” Harris responded. Rangel allowed Sifuentes to have the floor.
“These questions are certainly relevant to the issue as to whether the San Antonio Police Department conducted an adequate, complete, fair and full investigation,” Sifuentes said. “And, if they did not complete full and fair investigation, then that goes to the issue of reasonable doubt.”
Sifuentes then asked for one of the other defense attorneys to back up his argument. LaHood obliged.
3:27 p.m. - “I know it’s uncomfortable for the government, but she’s a proper witness to answer those questions,” LaHood told the court. “They (the state) can bring a witness to give context later on.”
Harris told Rangel that the defense’s argument about who has access to certain files is attempting to shift focus away from the case at hand.
“The idea that the investigation is not the issue before this jury,” Harris said. “The issue before this jury is whether or not there is evidence to prove that the defendants caused the death of Melissa Perez with legal justification or not. Not the investigation or when someone dotted an ‘I,’ crossed a ‘T,’ filed a paper.”
LaHood then cut Harris off.
3:28 p.m. - ″Judge, I can’t believe a felony prosecutor is saying that, to be honest with you," LaHood said, who then spoke to Harris. “You should be ashamed of yourself. Of course their investigation is at issue.”
“I’ll worry about my stinking case,” Harris told LaHood. “You handle yours.”
“Don’t throw that kind of talk out here,” LaHood responded.
“What are you?” Harris said to LaHood.
Rangel sustained Harris’ objection and said the defense can rephrase their questioning.
3:58 p.m. - Linda Flores was excused from the stand.
3:59 p.m. - The prosecution called San Antonio Fire Department Captain Christopher Hudson to the stand.
Hudson, who has worked with the department for 20 years, said he was a field lieutenant on the day of the Melissa Perez shooting.
4:03 p.m. - Hudson said he responded to Perez’s apartment at approximately 11:30 p.m. on June 22, 2023, on a fire alarm call. At the time, SAFD notes suggested that a female was “cutting the wires to the fire alarms,” according to Hudson.
4:05 p.m. - Due to the “vandalism” aspect regarding the cut wires, Hudson told prosecutors that he dispatched SAPD, as well.
4:07 p.m. - Hudson, who described Perez as “talkative” and “kind of all over the place,” said she admitted to cutting the fire alarm wires.
“Pretty, you know, friendly conversation the whole time,” Hudson recalled.
4:10 p.m. - When the first SAPD vehicle arrived on scene, Hudson said he told an officer that Perez “seemed to be having some psychiatric issues or she was under the influence, maybe, or both.”
4:13 p.m. - A video Hudson took of Perez at the scene was played in court.
4:14 p.m. - However, due to audio issues with the video, Rangel ordered a short break so that the audio could be fixed.
4:31 p.m. - Court proceedings resumed. The video with Perez and a dog was played before the court.
4:33 p.m. - Although she communicated with the SAPD officer, Hudson said Perez “wasn’t as open with him as she was with us.” Hudson didn’t listen in on their conversation.
After a second SAPD officer arrived, the officers told Hudson that they “got it” and that firefighters could leave the scene.
4:34 p.m. - One of Hudson’s fellow firefighters told him that Perez had taken off and at least one officer began chasing after her. She ran “inside her apartment,” Hudson told prosecutors.
After asking the officers if they needed any help, they said they were “good.” Hudson and his fellow firefighters then left the scene.
4:36 p.m. - The prosecution passed the witness to the defense. Goss began asking Hudson questions.
5:06 p.m. - Goss passed the witness.
5:08 p.m. - Rangel instituted a short break.
5:21 p.m. - Jury has been notified that court proceedings have been concluded for the day. The trial is expected to resume at 10 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 13.
Background
On June 23, 2023, Perez, 46, experienced a mental health crisis inside her Southwest Side apartment, where SAPD body camera footage showed she was fatally shot by ex-SAPD officers Eleazar Alejandro, Alfred Flores and Nathaniel Villalobos.
After more than 12 hours of jury selection that stretched well into Thursday night, a jury was officially seated just before 11 p.m. Court proceedings are expected to begin at noon on Friday.
The case drew widespread attention and sparked debate over police response protocols.
Alejandro, Flores and Villalobos each face charges in connection with Perez’s death. All three officers have since been removed from the force.
All three charged will be tried together, which will make for a packed courtroom.
Former prosecutor-turned-defense attorney Meredith Chacon said the plan to try all three together means each defense team has agreed on some kind of joint strategy.
“It indicates a sharing of resources, and they’re all working together on this defense,” Chacon said.
Each defendant has their own team of lawyers:
- Alfred Flores is represented by Thom Nisbet, Christian Neumann and David Christian
- Eleazar Alejandro is represented by Ben Sifuentes and Mario Del Prado, a former division chief in the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office
- Nathaniel Villalobos is represented by former Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood and his law partners Jay Norton, Jason Goss and Patrick Ballantyne
As for the state, prosecutors include Felony Criminal Trial Division Chief David Lunan and Daryl Harris.
The trial is being presided over by 379th Criminal District Court Judge Ron Rangel.
On Wednesday, ahead of jury selection, a pretrial hearing became heated as attorneys sparred over key issues ahead of the trial. Defense attorneys argued with prosecutors over which evidence and legal arguments should be allowed during the proceedings.
Among the issues discussed was a federal judge’s recent decision to dismiss a civil lawsuit against the officers— a ruling the defense wants jurors to hear about. Prosecutors opposed that motion.
Defense attorneys also objected to any discussion of the Castle Doctrine, or “protection of property” laws, during the trial. They argued it is irrelevant to the facts of the case.
Rangel has yet to rule on those motions.
If convicted, Flores and Alejandro each face up to life in prison. Villalobos, who is facing an aggravated assault by a public servant charge, also faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
For a full look back at this case, watch our KSAT Open Court video below:
More recent coverage of this trial on KSAT: