SAN ANTONIO – Details of an alleged murder-for-hire plot are being revealed in the trial of man accused to have been the trigger man.
John Cantu is charged with capital murder - remuneration for the death of Mike Perez in February 2019.
According to opening statements by the prosecution, Cantu was given $500 by his sister-in-law, Christina Rodriguez, to kill Perez.
Rodriguez allegedly was in trouble with her drug supplier for diluting drugs and wanted to shift the blame on one of her drug runners, who was Perez.
She allegedly asked her husband, Manuel Cantu, to kill Perez, but he refused, and that is when she asked his brother John Cantu.
Carmen Hernandez, who was a babysitter for Manuel Cantu and Rodriguez and lived in their home, testified that she heard Rodriguez and John Cantu talk about the plan. Part of the plan included for Rodriguez to supply the bullets and to pay John Cantu.
“He said, ‘I’ll do it,’ and then told her that he needed bullets for the gun, and she said, ‘I got you,’” Hernandez said.
Hernandez testified Tuesday that Perez was called over to the home they lived in on Illg Avenue on the South Side, where Manuel Cantu severely beat Perez, and then John Cantu shot him five times. She said they later dumped his body on the next street over.
Hernandez’s testimony is key for the state as prosecutors said there wasn’t a lot of physical evidence found since Perez’s body was found days after he was fatally shot.
Manual Cantu and Christina Rodriguez are also facing a capital murder charge in this case and are still awaiting trial.
If found guilty, John Cantu is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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3 charged with murder in fatal shooting of man on Southwest Side