Defense attorneys challenged the lead detective’s review of body camera evidence as testimony in the trial over Melissa Perez’s 2023 shooting continued.
SAN ANTONIO — A Bexar County judge on Tuesday denied a defense request for a mistrial in the ongoing trial of three former San Antonio police officers charged in the shooting death of Melissa Perez, and Wednesday brought more grilling of the lead detective as testimony stretched into a tense Day 13.
Detective Ronald Soto, who wrote up and executed the arrest warrants for the defendants within 16 hours of the June 23, 2023, shooting, returned to the witness stand for a third day as defense attorneys pressed him on what they argue were investigative missteps.
This week has seen Soto become a focal point of the defense strategy. 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.
Questions over evidence review
Defense attorneys zeroed in Wednesday on 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.
“You would agree in the absence in your notes that you did not do a thorough review of the 10 officers?” a defense attorney asked during one exchange.
“I did not do as thorough a review as I should have,” Soto acknowledged.
The defense also showed jurors clips of Soto speaking with Perez’s family shortly after the shooting and learning of her mental health struggles. They pointed out that her history with mental illness and substance abuse was not accounted for in the warrants.
Still, Soto testified he believed there was enough evidence at the time to pursue probable cause.
“I did what I needed to put for probable cause,” he responded when asked whether he failed to include the full picture in his affidavits.
Defense reenacts shooting moments
At one point, a defense attorney physically reenacted what they say Flores saw moments before the shooting—arguing Perez was running toward a window and had closed the distance on officers so significantly so as to put Flores in a “highly vulnerable” position.
“He could be vulnerable, yes,” Soto said when asked whether Flores may have felt defenseless in that moment.
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.
Warrant dispute continues to loom
The courtroom tensions come a day after defense attorneys requested a mistrial over questioning related to whether officers needed a warrant before entering Perez’s home.
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.
The judge declined to halt the trial but instructed jurors to disregard all discussions about warrants.
The defense had called for a mistrial on Friday, Oct. 17, during questioning of Officer Jonathan Salinas, who responded to the scene in 2023. Salinas had said he was upset with a theory the state was formulating over the early days of the trial—that the officers who entered Perez’s apartment were committing burglary of a habitat.
The defense team said that could incriminate Salinas and the other officers expected to testify over the course of the weekslong trial.
Salinas was then given a public defender who announced the officer wanted to plead the fifth, giving him the flexibility not to testify further. Ultimately, the state decided to grant immunity to the officers testifying—aside from Salinas and Officer Jesus Ramos, who was questioned for four days.
What happens next
Soto has testified he was not pressured by SAPD leadership to arrest the officers quickly – within 16 hours of the shooting – and maintains the decision was his. He will return to the stand Thursday morning when the trial resumes at 10:30 a.m. and testimony continues.
Flores and Alejandro are charged with murder, while Villalobos is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. 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.
Background on the case
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.
Thus far, responding officers, a San Antonio Fire Department captain, the crime scene investigators, Perez’s former sister-in-law and others have testified in the trial.