The pastor husband of a third grade teacher whose body was found last week slumped over the steering wheel of her car was charged over the weekend in connection with her shooting death, authorities said.
Julio Cesar Perez, leader of the Ministerios Manantial de Vida church in El Ranchito, was charged with capital murder and ordered held without bail Sunday in Cameron County Jail, accused of orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot that left his 39-year-old wife dead.
Shortly before the discovery late Thursday of Sonia Perez-her foot still on the brake pedal, an identification badge from the Rio Hondo Independent School District still around her neck-Julio Perez reported his wife missing, telling authorities that it was unlike her to not pick up one of their two daughters and immediately return home. He told police that he had last heard from his wife about 3:30 p.m. in a text message responding to one he had sent saying he was cooking chicken for dinner.
He told authorities that the couple had no marital problems and that he knew of no one who would want to hurt his wife.
Sonia Perez had been shot in the head and right side and was found in her Ford Astro van after a deputy spotted her car along the road with the head lights on. Neither bullet casings nor weapons were found.
Julio Perez became a suspect Saturday, when a woman reportedly told police the pastor had been looking for hit men. According to an arrest affidavit in the case, the pastor “wanted the phone number of the guys that had taken care of her problem involving a person that had been harassing her.”
She referred him to Gabriel Apolinar Escalante, 20, who allegedly brought in a third suspect to carry out the killing.
Escalante turned himself in, telling police the pastor made $1,300 in three payments for the killing, the third in the parking lot of a Payless shoe store, authorities said. He remained jailed Monday, also charged with capital murder and ordered held without bail.
A third suspect was arrested Monday, said Sheriff Omar Lucino, who expected the man to also be charged with capital murder and denied bail. Attorney information for the suspects was not immediately available.
Rio Hondo ISD Superintendent Anneliese McMinn said she was told of the death late Thursday. She said she called parents of each of Sonia Perez’s 21 students to give them the option of keeping their child home Friday. About half did, and extra counselors were brought in for those who went to school.
McMinn said Perez was in her first year with the district’s dual-language program. She had worked for nine years in San Benito.Â
“It’s a terrible loss. She was a wonderful teacher,” McMinn said. “She was very well loved by her staff and by her students and by the parents.”
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