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Rio Hondo teacher slaying case postponed until spring
BROWNSVILLE — A judge on Friday gave prosecutors and defense attorneys more time to prepare for the capital murder case of Julio Cesar Perez, the Pentecostal minister accused of hiring a hit man to kill his wife, a Rio Hondo school teacher.
State District Judge Migdalia Lopez said she wanted to give both sides time to prepare and rescheduled a status hearing for Perez for Sept. 4.
Perez was called up in court Friday morning, wearing an orange jumpsuit and in handcuffs, but he was quickly ushered away after the rescheduling.
Perez maintains his innocence.
A Cameron County sheriff’s deputy found the body of his wife, Sonia Perez, in her van along Robles Road in Rio Hondo around 10:49 p.m. on March 31, 2011.
Six suspects have been arrested in connection with what authorities have described as a murder-for-hire plot and charged with capital murder.
Some of the suspects have pleaded guilty and have accepted plea deals in exchange for their testimony against Julio Cesar Perez.
Daniel Lopez, 38, the man prosecutors said shot Sonia Perez, pleaded guilty in October and was sentenced to life in prison.
Daniel Castaneda, 22, was sentenced to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty in October. Prosecutors said Castaneda drove Lopez to Walmart to buy ammunition for the gun used to kill Sonia Perez.
Mark Daniel Garza, 23; Alfredo Castañeda, 39; and Gabriel Apolinar Escalante, 20; all face charges in connection with the slaying.
Prosecutors allege Julio Cesar Perez hired men to kill his 39-year-old wife to collect on an estimated $120,000 life insurance policy.
Sonia Perez was the mother of two daughters and a third-grade teacher at Rio Hondo Intermediate School. Before that, she taught in the San Benito school district for about 10 years.
In San Benito, she was a first-grade teacher at Judge Oscar de la Fuente Elementary School, where she was named Teacher of the Year in 2008-2009.
