SAN ANTONIO – Authorities on Monday made a second arrest in the death of a 20-year-old mother whose body was found on a busy stretch of road on the Southeast Side on March 29.
Paola Perez, 21, is charged with murdering Brianna De La Cruz. According to an affidavit, the driver who found De La Cruz said she appeared to be crawling and reaching out for help.
Police determined she had been shot multiple times and found several shell casings near the 800 block of Foster Road where her body was found.
Kedreen Pugh, 30, was arrested on April 4 in connection with De La Cruz's murder.
Police found out that days prior to the shooting, De La Cruz was staying at a motel near Highway 90 and Military Drive, and that she had gone there with a man, whom they later identified as Pugh, an affidavit for Pugh's arrest said.
A tipster also told investigators that Pugh had confessed to the killing, saying that De La Cruz had stolen money from him, Pugh's arrest affidavit said.
The tipster claimed that Pugh told him he shot her multiple times and watched her "crawling for her life," Pugh's arrest affidavit said. According to San Antonio Police Department spokesman Doug Greene, Perez and Pugh both shot De La Cruz over money.
The tipster said Pugh told him he thought about going back and "popping her a few more times," but daylight was dawning, Pugh's affidavit said.
Perez told KSAT as she was being walked to a police cruiser that she had no regrets and that De La Cruz "didn't care about (her) family, didn't care about (her) children (and) didn't care about (her)." Perez added that De La Cruz "put herself in this situation," but refused to elaborate.
De La Cruz was described by loved ones as a fun, loving mother of four children.
“She was good to be around. She always looked out for the ones she loved,” her sister-in-law told KSAT in April.