A teen is on trial for capital murder after he broke into a home, got into a shootout with the homeowner, and then begged police to save his life when they eventually found him. All the while, the homeowner he shot was killed.
“Can you help me? Please, bro, I’m dying, dude,” Jonathan Andrew Perales, then 18, tells the officers in the video taken by an officer’s body cam. “I don’t want to die. I’m sorry. I’ll tell you everything. He shot me and I shot back.”
Police found Perales inside another residence after he got lost while trying to leave the neighborhood. Another homeowner found him outside, injured, and brought him in after fearing that the person who shot him was still outside and a threat.
It wouldn’t be until later that police connected the two scenes; Scene 1 where the homeowner and Perales shot at each other, and Scene 2 where Perales ended up after trying to get away.
Michael Clayton Robinson, 51, was home with his wife and two of his six children when they were awakened by an intruder. Robinson, a physician assistant, grabbed his 9mm Glock and yelled out to the unseen burglar, “Get out of my house.”
When Robinson opened the door to his bedroom, he saw Perales with a gun, witnesses said. Both men shot each other. Robinson later died. Perales, wounded, left in his car, police said, but got lost inside the subdivision and ended up at a nearby house, begging for help.
The defense is painting the picture of a teen who took some drugs that night and simply wanted some quick cash and didn’t mean to hurt anyone. That’s the legal system for you.
“Voluntary intoxication is not a defense to a criminal offense,” his lawyer told the jury. “He was out of his right mind. He didn’t know Clay got hurt. He found out later.”
But, you seem to be forgetting that he had a gun on him. And he broke into a house. And he was using drugs. And he’s a thug.
So, we’ll see this play out in the courts, and hopefully the jury will send this kid away for life.
I don’t know about you, but when I was 18 and hard up for cash, I wasn’t breaking into people’s homes and trying to rob them. I got a job.
It’s so terrible to see Robinson lose his life, and now a family is destroyed because of this teen’s terrible life choices.
