Testimony resumed Monday in the trial of three ex-SAPD officers charged with killing Melissa Perez during a 2023 mental health call.
SAN ANTONIO — Melissa Perez’s former sister-in-law took the stand Monday and spoke about Perez’s declining mental health as the trial centered on three former San Antonio police officers who shot and killed her entered its second full week.
Perez was 46 when she was fatally shot during a mental health crisis in June 2023. Authorities say she was coming at officers with a hammer. At the center of the case is whether the defendants – Alfred Flores, Eleazar Alejandro and Nathaniel Villalobos – were justified in their use of deadly force.
Last week, jurors saw graphic photos and physical evidence from the scene of the police shooting, including the hammer Perez is said to have wielded. The defendants’ lawyers say Perez was a threat to their safety.
On Monday, Daisy Nieto testified that her former sister-in-law’s mental health started to decline in 2022. She said Perez had delusions of the FBI following her.
Relatives eventually got Melissa help and she spent about a month in a facility; they say she was given medications but stopped taking them because she didn’t like the side effects.
“She would always tell me that it would make her sleepy,” Nieto testified. “It’s not uncommon for them to discontinue their medications once they start feeling better. And I think on some occasions she felt like, ‘I’m better. I think I’m OK.’ And then there’s times where she struggled with the fact that the medications have those side effects that would make her feel sleepy or zombified, just not herself.”
The lead detective in the case also took the stand late in Monday’s proceedings and is expected to continue testifying when the trial resumes at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. It will be the 12th day of the trial.
What’s happened in the trial so far?
Crime scene investigator Yvonne Diaz with the San Antonio Police Department testified over two days last week, describing what she saw and the evidence she collected after the deadly encounter early the morning of June 23, 2023. Prosecutors used her testimony to show how bullets riddled Perez’s south-side apartment.
Also on the witness stand last Wednesday was Dr. David Lynch with the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office. Lynch said the ME’s office ruled the cause of death was gunshot wounds and the manner of death was homicide, meaning that the death was caused by another individual. He clarified that the manner of death ruling does not imply any wrongdoing. Lynch said Perez was shot once in the chest and again in her armpit, despite investigators saying the defendants fired off 16 shots.
One of the defense attorneys pointed out that in order for Perez to have been shot in the armpit, her arm had to be up. They also brought up the fact Perez was hit twice, not three times, even though there are three former officers charged.
On Thursday, Holli Worden, a forensic scientist supervisor in the firearm/toolmarks section of the Bexar County Crime Lab, took the stand to testify about the bullet and casings analysis. She was there to confirm the shell casings collected at the scene matched the guns used by the then-officers. She testified that 10 bullets were fired from Alejandro’s gun while three shots were fired from each of other two defendants’ guns.
Worden was also questioned by defense attorneys on the timing of her lab’s investigation and a potential discrepancy between the completion of the investigation and when the officers were officially charged.
Detective Deanna Platt was next to take the stand. Her role in this case was interviewing Flores following the shooting.
The state questioned her about the statement the then-police sergeant gave her that day.
As part of Platt’s testimony, she read word for word from Flores’ statement: “As she rushed toward us with the hammer raised above her head, I believed the suspect was going to attack us with a hammer… as I feared for my life and the other officers…”
The defense team took the opportunity during cross-examination to have Platt walk them through when use of force is justified. Attorney Nico LaHood even re-enacted what Perez was allegedly doing before she was shot and killed.
The defense team also asked the detective if Police Chief William McManus had pressured detectives to write up an arrest warrant—against their better judgment. But the detective testifying said she has no knowledge of that.
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.
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.
It was during questioning of a San Antonio police officer who responded to the scene, Officer Jonathan Salinas, that the defense called for a mistrial on Friday.
Salinas on Thursday 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, which the district attorney’s office says is likely the first time a Bexar County law enforcement officer is on trial for murder.
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 this week.