By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-10-03 16:58:21 | Updated at 2024-10-06 12:34:43
2 days ago
These are the five chilling words a husband and father spoke the night before he was allegedly murdered in his bedroom by his wife's lover.
Sergio Chavez-Perez, 32, was shot in front of his spouse and her two-year-old around 7am on December 19, 2021 after his wife Araceli Perez's boyfriend Tyshaun Drummond, 42, allegedly burst through the door and killed him.
However, after coming home after a drunken night out the night before, Chavez-Perez told his wife five chilling words: 'Tonight, somebody's going to die,' she testified in court on Wednesday.
Then he left the home with a knife, their 12-year-old daughter had told her mother, according to the Asbury Park Press.
Perez warned Drummond via text that Chavez-Perez had left the home with a weapon, but he returned shortly, crawling into bed with her where they watched television until they fell asleep.
Sergio Chavez-Perez, 32, was shot in front of his wife and her two-year-old around 7am on December 19, 2021 after his wife Araceli Perez's boyfriend Tyshaun Drummond, 42, (pictured) allegedly burst through the door and killed him
After coming home after a drunken night out, Chavez-Perez told Perez (pictured) five chilling words: 'Tonight, somebody's going to die,' she testified in court on Wednesday
It wasn't until the next morning when Drummond ambushed the couple that violence broke out.
Despite Chavez-Perez holding his hands up after Drummond burst into their home, the alleged murderer shot the father and killed him, the prosecutor said.
The couple's other two children, three and 12, were in the living room while the shooting occurred.
Drummond is also accused of striking Nicholas Hardy, 36, with five bullets, killing him in the apartment downstairs from the Perez family.
Perez and Drummond began their affair in early 2021 and the pair first met in 2015 or 2016 at the Brettwood apartment complex, where she was living with her family at the time.
She also testified that her husband physically abused her.
Text messages and photos shared with the jury show how Drummond and Perez's romantic relationship transpired, including an image of them kissing, according to the Asbury Park Press.
Drummond is also accused of killing Nicholas Hardy, 36, who was shot with five bullets. Perez testified that she saw Drummond standing with a gun near Hardy's body. Hardy lived in the apartment below them
However, Perez said she tried to break off her romance with the alleged killer in September 2021 because she wanted to 'rekindle' her relationship with her husband. Around the same time, her husband accused her of having an affair, which did not end in September.
As the affair continued, Drummond would text Perez and call her his 'wife-to-be' and 'future wife' and wanted her to call him her 'future husband.'
'Good morning my beautiful wife-to-be,' he wrote to her on November 30, 2021.
'Good morning, my love and future husband,' she replied, according to Asbury Park Press.
He also warned her to delete their text messages 'in case he wants to check.'
On that fateful December day, Perez remembers her late husband telling her to open the apartment door because his brother was knocking, but when she did, no one was there.
She waited a few minutes and within that span of time, Drummond came running out of the downstairs apartment and up the stairs to hers.
'He looked at me, he pushed me, and he opened the door to my apartment,' she told the court. 'I went in after him and I said in English: "My kids are here," and he went directly into the [living] room.'
Perez also testified that her late husband was abusive to her and that she tried to break up with Drummond in September 2021 because she wanted to 'rekindle' her relationship with Chavez-Perez. Around that same time, her husband accused her of having an affair
She told the court she thought Drummond had just come to fight, but then she watched him make his way to the bedroom, where Chavez-Perez was standing in the doorway, she heard him tell her lover to 'calm down.'
After that, a gunshot rang out and Drummond fled the scene.
'I heard the sound of the shot. I covered my ears. I looked toward the floor. I saw the shell of the bullet on the floor and, at that time, Tyshaun left,' she tearfully said, according to Asbury Park Press.
Perez desperately tried to save her husband, who was no longer breathing, and called 911 in hysterics as his 'blood was flowing out at a high rate.'
When she opened the front door again to see if police had arrived, she noticed Hardy's body lying on the hallway floor and Drummond standing outside with a gun in his left hand.
'That is the day I found out that he is left-handed,' she testified.
While his ex-girlfriend testified, Drummond sat calmly in the courtroom, according to the Asbury Park Press.
He faces charges for the men's death, as well as, for possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of a weapon, and burglary.
