Melee eyewitnesses testify in Marine murder trial
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SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — Tears were shed during day four of The State of Texas v. Ray Vera as four eyewitnesses took the stand to give their personal accounts of what happened the night of the incident.
During the morning, San Angelo Police Department Officer Zane Daniel and Naval Criminal Investigation Services Special Agent Robert Lee testified before the court. Daniel discussed footage from his body camera recorded during the incident, and Lee discussed how he used specialized video software to identify key details and information found in videos taken of the fights.
Later in the day, the State called four eyewitnesses to the stand: Marissa Monreal, Alyssa Moreno, Marvin Wyatt and Manuel Baeza. Though each witness had their own story to share, several common details were observed among their testimonies, including the following:
All of the eyewitnesses who testified were friends and/or co-workers who worked at a Walmart during the time of the incident.
They came to the Whiskey River Saloon after attending a concert at the House of FiFi DuBois that featured a common friend.
They were seated at a large table adjacent to six other tables and near the dance floor where the first fight occurred.
They witnessed two men, one a tall white man and the other a large Hispanic man, get into two verbal altercations that would develop into a fight.
The eyewitnesses would leave shortly after the Marine servicemen left the bar after a bartender told all patrons to exit the building following the first fight.
As the eyewitnesses went outside, they witnessed a member of Vera’s group “charge” at a Marine serviceman with a glass bottle/mug and hit the individual in the end, instigating a second fight in the parking lot.
They saw a Marine serviceman collapse to the ground during the second altercation.
Police sirens heard in the distance disrupted the second fight, after which Vera’s group left the scene in a black SUV.
PREVIOUSLY: Testimony continues on day three of Marine murder trial
Monreal stated that a member of the Marine servicemen’s group, identified as a “tall” white man wearing a red shirt, was seen engaging in a verbal altercation with a member of Vera’s party after dancing on the dance floor. However, she also said that those in Vera’s group were “not leaving the military people alone” after the initial dispute.
“At the end it was just bodies on the floor, the ambulance running around helping who they could,” Moreal said when describing the aftermath of the second fight.
Moreno noted during her testimony that the white man in the red shirt was arguing with a Hispanic man who had a neck tattoo. She also indicated that she thought the Marine servicemen’s group was not being aggressive in the moments leading up to the bar fight and that both conflicts involved approximately 8-10 people across both involved parties.
Moreno teared up during her testimony when describing the second fight, during which she saw an individual walking away from the melee with a stab wound on his arm before falling to the ground.
“He was bleeding out in between the cars, and there was people trying to help him,” Moreno said.
Wyatt stated that he observed members of the Marine servicemen’s group apologize to two members of Vera’s group before departing. Despite this, he also said that a military party member would continue to argue with a member of Vera’s group.
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Wyatt also claimed that a “tall lumberjack-looking dude with a neck tattoo,” approximately 6 feet 5 inches tall, initiated the first physical altercation by punching a Marine serviceman. Wyatt would later state that the black SUV driven away from the bar by members of Vera’s party initially traveled to the left of the saloon before turning around to avoid police sirens heard from that direction.
During his testimony, Baeza would identify Vera as being involved in the arguments that led to the bar fight. He also claimed that a member of Vera’s group said, “Hurry up, we need to go get them,” while exiting the bar.
The State of Texas v. Ray Vera is scheduled to continue on Monday, April 8, at 8 a.m.
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