Witness declines to name friend as gunman in Santa Rosa apartment complex slaying

A reluctant, uncooperative witness testified in court Tuesday that he didn’t remember telling a detective that the suspected trigger-man in a July slaying outside a Santa Rosa apartment building had confessed to the crime.

The witness was a childhood friend of Ramon Perez, a 19-year-old suspect in three shootings - including the July incident - that left two people injured and one man dead. Prosecutors began outlining their case linking Perez to the shootings, including ballistic evidence and testimony from a detective who conducted a lengthy, recorded interview with the childhood friend who said that Perez admitted to two shootings but wished he hadn’t done it.

“I don’t remember telling the officer that or anything on that sheet,” said the witness, Don Acker, referring to a piece of paper that outlined a statement he’d given to a detective on the day authorities arrested Perez.

“Did Ramon Perez tell you, ‘I think they have me there ‘cuz I shot some kid,’ ” prosecutor Diane Gomez asked during a lengthy questioning of Acker.

“I don’t remember,” Acker said.

“If you were to tell that to an officer, would that have been the truth?” Gomez said.

“I don’t know,” Acker said.

“Any reason for you to make up a story about your childhood friend Ramon?” Gomez said.

“No,” Acker said.

Tuesday’s court proceeding was a reboot of a preliminary hearing before Judge Patrick Broderick that had been cut short in September because of an apparent conflict of interest with the public defender initially representing Perez. Criminal defense lawyer Barry McBride since has been appointed to represent Perez.

Perez and Jesse Urbina and Mizrain Nava Cano, both 22, are charged with the July 6 murder of Austin Sargent-Deselle, 20, of Santa Rosa at a Corby Avenue apartment complex parking lot.

Authorities claim that Perez shot Sargent-Deselle at about 1:45 a.m. when he and Nava Cano confronted Sargent-?Deselle and others in the parking lot. Authorities suspect Urbina was the getaway driver.

A deputy testified that as he arrived at the scene, he saw someone pulling Sargent-Deselle’s lifeless body into a BMW.

He and other detectives with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and Santa Rosa Police Department at Tuesday’s hearing used diagrams and photographs of the scene to show where they found bullet casings and fragments at the Corby Avenue incident.

They also testified about casings found at the scene of two other shootings,

Authorities suspect Perez was also the shooter on April 21 at Rockwell Place off West Ninth Street and at South Davis Park on May 4.

In the April 21 case, a 19-year-old gang member was shot and wounded by a gunman on a bicycle at the Rockwell Place complex. On May 4, a 16-year-old girl was wounded in gunfire at South Davis Park.

During a raid at Perez’s Marble Street home, detectives found a 9 mm pistol in his brother’s closet underneath a hat. Gomez said prosecutors plan to link that weapon to the other shootings.

Longtime Sonoma County sheriff’s detective Gary Freitas testified that when a tactical SWAT team raided Perez’s home on July 16, Perez fled to Acker’s house, which was several doors down.

Perez knocked on Acker’s bedroom window and was let inside through a side garage door, according to Freitas.

Acker told Freitas during a lengthy recorded interview conducted later that day that Perez told him that he killed a “kid” after he and two others had been “looking for someone to start shit with,” Freitas said. He also is alleged to have said he shot another person while on a bike several months earlier, according to the court testimony.

Perez asked Acker for a set of clippers and shaved off the hair on the sides of his head in Acker’s garage, leaving a pile of hair behind, detectives said.

Detectives tracked Perez to Acker’s home through a phone call Perez made from the house to his brother Ricardo Perez. When authorities began shining flashlights into Acker’s windows and knocking on the door, Acker reportedly came out with his hands up and told them Perez was inside.

The preliminary proceedings will continue today.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.