Ex-SAPD officers’ trial continues as jury examines warrantless entry

SAN ANTONIO — A tense week of testimony continues Thursday in the trial of three former SAPD officers in the death of Melissa Perez during a 2023 mental health call. 

The trial has stretched into a 14th day after Detective Ronald Soto took the stand Wednesday. He is the detective who wrote up and executed the arrest warrants for the three officers within 16 hours of the deadly shooting in June of 2023.

Soto’s testimony has been a main focus in court this week. Defense attorneys brough up Soto’s decision not to take detailed notes on body camera footage from all 15 officers who responded to Perez’s south-side apartment complex the morning of the shooting. Instead, he reviewed and took notes from only five officers’ videos—including the three defendants.

Also this week, the jury watched a defense attorney physically reenact the shooting, making the point that the officers were in fear of their lives when they fired their weapons. Perez, 46, was struck twice, although officers fired 16 times. A forensic scientist previously testified that the only bullet recovered from her body came from Flores’ gun, testimony the defense has used to argue that he was justified in firing because Perez posed a threat. 

The jury must determine whether former Sgt. Alfred Flores and former Officers Eleazar Alejandro and Nathaniel Villalobos were justified in firing their weapons while Perez wielded a hammer in her apartment unit. The trial is expected to last for a month. 

It was early in the morning of June 23, 2023, when authorities say Perez tampered with her complex’s fire alarm system, triggering a police response.

Later that morning, Flores, Alejandro and Villalobos fatally shot at Perez when authorities said she came at them with a hammer. Before 24 hours had passed, they were suspended from the force and jailed after Chief William McManus said their actions didn’t conform with protocols.

At the center of the trial is whether or not the defendants’ use of deadly force was warranted, which jurors must determine. Flores and Alejandro are charged with murder, while Villalobos is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection with Perez’s death. The three are being tried together.

The case is believed to be the first time in Bexar County history that law enforcement officers have faced murder charges for an on-duty shooting.

The issue of whether officers needed a warrant to enter Perez’s home continues to be a question in court. Prosecutors have argued the officers’ warrantless entry amounted to burglary of a habitation. Defense attorneys counter that Perez committed a felony earlier that morning when she threw a candle at an officer, allowing police to arrest her without a warrant.