SAN ANTONIO – A little more than a month after being indicted, three SAPD officers made their first court appearance Monday in the shooting death of a 46-year-old woman last summer.
Former Sgt. Alfred Flores and Officer Eleazar Alejandro are charged with murder. Former Officer Nathaniel Villalobos is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
On June 23, 2023, Perez was having what Police Chief William McManus called a mental health crisis. Perez had a hammer in her hand when police shot her through a patio window and door at her Southwest Side apartment.
Hours after the shooting, McManus said the officers didn’t follow department training or policy and “used deadly force, which was not reasonable given all the circumstances as we now understand them.”
In court on Monday, the state told the court they were still in the process of trying to obtain more than 1,000 items of evidence so they can turn them over to each defendant’s attorneys.
In each case, 187th District Court Judge Stephanie Boyd issued a reset for Feb. 26.
Villalobos’ attorney, Nico La Hood, told KSAT after the hearing that the expectation is to have all three cases tried together whenever it does go to trial.
All the defendants face a first degree felony charge and if found guilty face five to 99 years or life in prison.