SAN ANTONIO – A trial date has been set for three former SAPD officers charged with fatally shooting a woman inside her apartment last summer.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Sept. 20 in the trial of Alfred Flores, Nathaniel Villalobos and Eleazar Alejandro. Testimony is scheduled for Sept. 24.
In June 2023, Melissa Perez was shot and killed inside her Southwest Side apartment.
SAPD Chief William McManus at the time of the incident said Perez was experiencing a mental health crisis and had a hammer in her hand when officers shot her through a patio window and door.
Flores and Alejandro were later indicted on a murder charge and Villalobos was indicted on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The department released a portion of edited and blurred body-worn camera video from officers on the scene after the shooting.
In court on Monday, new Civil Rights Division Chief Jeff Mulliner of the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office requested a continuance in the case, citing that he had just taken over the department and needed more time to review the case.
Defense attorneys for the three former officers said they were okay with the continuance as they were all having trouble lining up their expert witnesses to the proposed trial date.
187th District Court Judge Stephanie Boyd denied the motion for the continuance and said that the trial will go on as scheduled.
Mulliner also said that despite both sides agreeing before he got the case that he did not want to try all three men together.
Boyd said that no motion had been filed by the state making the request and that for now all three cases will be heard together.
Following the hearing, one of Villalobo’s attorneys, Nico LaHood, told KSAT 12 that they were surprised the judge denied the joint request.
“It’s really unprecedented when you have the state asking for a reset or continuance, the defense counsel is agreeing to that because both are admitting this is a voluminous case, this is a lot of a lot of evidence,” LaHood said. “It’s something that the judge says considered and then made her ruling. So we just have to move forward.”
As for the state, this will be the first case Mulliner handles as the new head of the Civil Rights Division after former head of the division Daryl Harris was removed from his position in July.