A 43-year-old Mercedes man accused of fatally punching his brother on New Year’s Day in 2018 is going back to jail.
After hearing about an hour of testimony Monday, state District Judge Fernando Mancias ordered Alfonso Flores Alejandro to spend three weeks in the county jail after he violated multiple conditions of his supervised release and stopped reporting to probation.
(Read: Trial set for man in fatal New Year’s punch)
Alejandro was charged with manslaughter and aggravated assault of a family member for the death of his brother-in-law, Jose Duran.
Mercedes police arrested the man at 2 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2018, after he allegedly “knocked out” Duran, killing him.
The affidavit for his arrest said a fight occurred after Alejandro’s girlfriend arrived at a New Year’s Eve celebration and the family “refused to have her there and asked her to leave.”
Investigators said Duran confronted Alejandro, who punched him.
Alejandro’s attorney, Juan Tijerina, has described Duran’s death as a “freak accident” and said the case will go to trial.
During Monday’s hearing, Mancias, the judge, required Alejandro to be in the courtroom.
He attended the hearing with his wife, alongside the judge and the court coordinator. The rest of the parties appeared via video-conferencing. Two of Duran’s family members also appeared through video-conferencing and asked Mancias to revoke Alejandro’s bond and send him to jail.
Assistant District Attorney Juan Bazan called six officials from the probation office during the hearing, all of whom described multiple violations, including that he did not physically report to the probation office beginning in December 2020, prompting officials to label him as an absconder.
The recent violations also include unauthorized changes of address. Alejandro has moved residences five or six times without permission from probation and when officials showed up for home visits, he was not there because either he moved and didn’t tell them or because he claimed he was at work, probation officials said.
Just this Saturday, one probation field officer testified she showed up to his apartment and was informed that he no longer lived there. On Sunday, she said she called him to go visit him at his new residence, but he said he wasn’t available.
Alejandro’s attorney, Tijerina, who did not call any witnesses, indicated during cross examination that his client’s moves were out of necessity and challenged the notion that Alejandro was not reporting because he did have periodic phone contact with probation officials.
Bazan, the prosecutor, had sought to have Alejandro’s $20,000 bonds revoked, additionally reminding Mancias that Alejandro had previous probation violations that included positive alcohol tests and that Alejandro had cut off his ankle monitor.
Those violations, however, had been previously addressed during hearings and Tijerina reminded the judge that he allowed Alejandro to no longer be required to have GPS monitoring because the man could not afford it.
Mancias declined to revoke the bonds, reminded Alejandro that being on the type of probation he is on, which includes house arrest, means he is on “thin ice,” and ordered Alejandro to spend three weeks in jail.
Alejandro will be released at 5 p.m. May 17.
