BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – During Monday’s testimony, San Antonio Police Department officer Andrew Chernak told jurors he believed the officers on the patio were justified in their actions at Melissa Perez’s apartment on June 23, 2023.
“Based upon the assault on SAPD officer (Jonathan) Salinas, (that) gave us grounds to go in,” Chernak testified on Monday. “So, you know, like I said, we had a legal right to enter that apartment.”
Ex-SAPD officers Eleazar Alejandro, Alfred Flores and Nathaniel Villalobos are on trial for the shooting death of Perez.
The department has since terminated Alejandro, Flores and Villalobos from the force.
SAPD crime scene investigator Yvonne Diaz was called to the stand on Monday afternoon. Diaz was the lone witness to testify on Tuesday.
Below is a timeline of Tuesday’s court proceedings.
1:38 p.m. - Jurors entered the courtroom.
The prosecution, led by co-prosecutor David Lunan, resumed questioning of San Antonio Police Department crime scene investigator Yvonne Diaz.
1:40 p.m. - When the trial’s proceedings last left off on Monday evening, the prosecution introduced crime scene photos Diaz took of the scene at Melissa Perez’s apartment.
Jason Goss, a co-defense attorney for ex-SAPD officer Nathaniel Villalobos, said he had “no objection” to the more than 100 photos “in the form that they’re in.”
1:43 p.m. - Multiple photos of Perez’s apartment, including its exterior and the breezeway leading to the apartment, were shown to the court.
In the above photo shown to jurors, there appeared to be a large puddle of water outside Perez’s front door on June 23, 2023.
“We were told by firefighters that water was pouring out of the kitchen sink area,” Diaz told the court. “It would be shut off, but that water would be continuing for the next hour.”
Diaz also said the water had spread to Perez’s living room, dining room, porch area and kitchen.
1:45 p.m. & 1:49 p.m. - Photos of Perez’s apartment patio area were shown with multiple shell casings with placards marking those spent shell casings.
1:52 p.m. - A photo with two shell casings near Perez’s patio door was shown to the court.
2:03 p.m. - Diaz told jurors that she took these photos at approximately 2:30 a.m. on June 23, 2023, nearly a half-hour after Perez was shot and killed.
2:06 p.m. - Additional photos, which KSAT determined were too graphic to air, were shown to the court.
2:09 p.m. - Diaz described a photo of Perez’s back to the court. Lunan asked why Perez’s body was turned over in the picture.
“The (Bexar County) medical examiner,” Diaz said. “So, we wait. The body is not moved once I’m there, when crime scene investigators are there. We are not allowed to touch that body. That is for the medical examiner to go and start moving and conducting their preliminary examination.”
2:36 p.m. - Ron Rangel, the presiding judge in this case, instituted a short break. Jurors exited the courtroom.
3 p.m. - Jurors reentered the courtroom.
3:01 p.m. - Lunan said there were multiple pieces of evidence that Diaz brought to court inside a brown paper bag.
The first piece of evidence, which was in a brown package inside the bag, was the hammer Perez used during her confrontation with SAPD on June 23, 2023.
3:07 p.m. - Diaz also introduced a candle that Perez used during the same June 23, 2023, confrontation with San Antonio police.
3:08 p.m. - Diaz brought in spent shell casings from the scene of the shooting.
3:22 p.m. - Lunan asked Diaz about the protocol for a crime scene investigator to get collected items tested by the Bexar County Crime Lab.
“The follow-up unit, detective assigned, would request our evidence to be sent to the crime lab,” Diaz told the court.
“And, when it goes to the crime lab, do the items have to be sealed?” Lunan asked.
“Yes,” Diaz said.
“And, when the crime lab does your testing, do they have to reseal it before they return it to the San Antonio Police Department?” Lunan asked.
“Yes,” Diaz said.
“And all these items have been resealed?” Lunan asked Diaz.
“Yes,” Diaz said.
3:24 p.m. - More than one year after the shooting, in September 2024, Diaz returned to Perez’s apartment to “collect bullet fragments that were in the wall.”
A search warrant was executed in accordance with Diaz’s continuing investigation. A different occupant had since taken up residence in Perez’s former apartment.
“Particularly, from what location (in the apartment)?” Lunan asked.
“The wall that is in between the bedroom wall and the living room wall,” Diaz responded.
3:31 p.m. - Diaz said the bullet was extracted from a piece of wood. It was the only bullet found in September 2024, according to Diaz.
“We cut around that (the wood),” Diaz said. “I had maintenance let me borrow his power tools.”
3:38 p.m. - Lunan passed the witness to the defense.
Goss began cross-examining Diaz.
4 p.m. - Goss passed the witness.
Rangel instituted a short break. Jurors exited the courtroom.
4:27 p.m. - A hearing began without the presence of jurors.
Ben Sifuentes, a co-defense attorney for ex-SAPD officer Eleazar Alejandro, began speaking to the court on behalf of the joint defense.
Sifuentes asked for the admittance of body-worn camera footage from two more officers at the scene, an affidavit and a search warrant signed by a magistrate judge that he said the prosecution would likely “object” to.
4:36 p.m. - Sifuentes also wanted to introduce crime scene photos that Diaz said she did not take herself. Another unidentified crime scene investigator took the photos.
4:38 p.m. - Rangel questioned the defense on the introduction of these photos.
“How will the jury know that they’re (the photos) true, right?” Rangel asked. “How will the jury that they purport to show whatever it is they’re supposed to show, what this witness (Diaz) cannot authenticate?”
“Because we all agree that they are,” Goss responded. “And so, what we’re doing is we’re representing to the court that they are true. We got them from the state, who also agrees that they are true.”
4:40 p.m. - Mario Del Prado, a co-defense attorney for ex-SAPD officer Eleazar Alejandro, claimed that the photos another SAPD crime scene investigator took were of items Perez took from the cut fire alarm wires from earlier in the evening.
“The fact that these batteries (from the fire alarm system) were in her apartment, proof of those things, this witness (Diaz) was not instructed to look for evidence of that,” Del Prado told Rangel. “The state provided us with those pictures. They know what that is evidence of: that it was evidence of theft.”
4:41 p.m. - Rangel asked the prosecution for a response to the defense’s claim.
“We have a rule of evidence, Your Honor,” Lunan said. “Just because we have something in our possession and give it to the defense does not dispatch with the rules of authentication and does not dispatch with the rules of hearsay.
“Any witness who took those pictures needs to be available, sitting right there (on the stand) and be cross-examined about when, where and how,” Lunan continued. “And motives and those other kinds of things. We don’t just give the jury things without any context, which she (Diaz) can’t provide.”
4:45 p.m. - Del Prado said the defense offered the search warrant as evidence, not as the truth of the matter, but to combat the prosecution’s argument that there were “criminal actions against police officers.”
“The prosecuting agency is the San Antonio Police Department. They went and got an affidavit and a search warrant for this, saying that it was an aggravated assault on a peace officer,” Del Prado said.
“So, for them (the prosecution) to be able to say, ‘Oh look, our prosecuting agency admitted, produced this. It was an aggravated assault on a police officer. That was the basis — their authority for going into the apartment that night,’“ Del Prado continued. ”And I think the jury is entitled to know that, once again, the state’s speaking out of both sides of their mouth.”
Rangel agreed to admit the affidavit and search warrant to the court, with specific language to jurors that says it is not being offered “for the truth of the matter as heard.”
“It’s being offered to rebut the state’s argument,” Rangel said.
4:48 p.m. - Jurors reentered the courtroom.
Sifuentes began his cross-examination of Diaz. He asked Diaz to read certain portions of the SAPD incident detail report on the shooting.
According to the report, SAPD Chief William McManus arrived at the scene shortly after 3 a.m. on June 23, 2023.
4:59 p.m. - Sifuentes began playing the body-worn camera of an SAPD officer that began at the 3:15 a.m. mark on June 23, 2023, more than one hour after Perez was shot and killed.
The video showed McManus walking toward the crime scene, which Diaz confirmed.
5:17 p.m. - Sifuentes asked Diaz if anyone told her about Perez admitting to San Antonio firefighters about stealing “13 batteries from the fire alarm panels in the complex.”
“No, I was not made aware of that,” Diaz told the court.
“Had you been made aware of that, would you have looked for those batteries and taken pictures of them?” Sifuentes asked.
“Yes,” Diaz responded.
5:18 p.m. - Sifuentes approached Diaz and showed her photos of the batteries found in Perez’s apartment.
“Were you directed to search for what is depicted (two photos Diaz was looking at)?” Sifuentes asked Diaz.
“No,” Diaz said.
“What do those appear to be to you?” Sifuentes asked.
“Because you’re telling me, they’re batteries,” Diaz said. “But, if I saw this, I would not know what they are.”
Sifuentes then turned Diaz’s attention to two other photos.
“Were you directed to look for components of a fire alarm panel?” Sifuentes asked Diaz.
“No,” Diaz said.
“Do you know what these (two photos Diaz was now looking at) are?” Sifuentes asked.
“No, I do not,” Diaz said.
5:28 p.m. - Sifuentes introduced the search warrant to Diaz.
After he asked Diaz to begin reading the warrant aloud, Rangel interjected with specific instructions he told the prosecution and defense he would craft for jurors while they were on a short break nearly 45 minutes earlier.
“You are instructed that there is evidence being offered that consists of an affidavit that supports the search warrant obtained by law enforcement officers,” Rangel told the jury. “The statements made in the search warrant affidavit are not being offered and are not admitted for the truth of the matter asserted in the affidavit. That means that what is said in the warrant affidavit is only being admitted for the purposes of assisting you, if it does, to put the matters in context.”
5:30 p.m. - Rangel ended court proceedings for the day. The trial is expected to resume at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Background
On June 23, 2023, Perez, 46, experienced a mental health crisis inside her Southwest Side apartment, where SAPD body camera footage showed she was fatally shot by ex-SAPD officers Eleazar Alejandro, Alfred Flores and Nathaniel Villalobos.
The case drew widespread attention and sparked debate over police response protocols.
Alejandro, Flores and Villalobos each face charges in connection with Perez’s death.
All three charged will be tried together, which will make for a packed courtroom.
Former prosecutor-turned-defense attorney Meredith Chacon said the plan to try all three together means each defense team has agreed on some kind of joint strategy.
“It indicates a sharing of resources, and they’re all working together on this defense,” Chacon said.
Each defendant has their own team of lawyers:
- Alfred Flores is represented by Thom Nisbet, Christian Neumann and David Christian.
- Eleazar Alejandro is represented by Ben Sifuentes and Mario Del Prado, a former division chief in the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office.
- Nathaniel Villalobos is represented by former Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood and his law partners Jay Norton, Jason Goss and Patrick Ballantyne.
As for the state, prosecutors include Felony Criminal Trial Division Chief David Lunan and Daryl Harris.
The trial is being presided over by Judge Ron Rangel of the 379th Criminal District Court.
Ahead of jury selection, a pretrial hearing became heated as attorneys sparred over key issues ahead of the trial. Defense attorneys argued with prosecutors over which evidence and legal arguments should be allowed during the proceedings.
Among the issues discussed was a federal judge’s recent decision to dismiss a civil lawsuit against the officers — a ruling the defense wants jurors to hear about. Prosecutors opposed that motion.
Defense attorneys also objected to any discussion of the Castle Doctrine, or “protection of property” laws, during the trial. They argued it is irrelevant to the facts of the case.
Rangel has yet to rule on those motions.
If convicted, Flores and Alejandro each face up to life in prison. Villalobos, who is facing an aggravated assault by a public servant charge, also faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
For a full look back at this case, watch our KSAT Open Court video below:
More coverage of this trial on KSAT: