Police say surveillance video and witness statements tied the new suspect to a fatal attack inside a vacant home.
SAN ANTONIO, TX — A second man has been arrested in the May killing of Eric Perez, who police say was beaten to death inside a vacant home on the city’s Southwest Side.
Rene Moreno, 29, was taken into custody Sunday and charged with murder in the death of Perez, 39. His bail was set at $200,000 after he was booked into the Bexar County Jail. The arrest adds a second named suspect to a homicide case built around surveillance video, witness statements and a medical examiner’s ruling that Perez died from blunt force trauma to the head.
San Antonio police were called around 1:30 p.m. May 8 to a vacant home in the 8900 block of Prairie Hill Street, near Palo Alto Park. Officers found Perez with a severe head injury and a pool of blood inside the house. Medics pronounced him dead at the scene. Investigators at first thought Perez might have been shot, but the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office later ruled the death a homicide caused by blunt force trauma. Police said the case changed after detectives reviewed video from a neighbor’s camera pointed toward the vacant property.
The video showed three masked men entering the home before Perez was found dead, according to arrest records described by police. One man carried an aluminum baseball bat, and another carried a metal rod. Detectives said Victor Sigala, 51, was later identified as the man with the bat after he removed his mask while leaving the property. Sigala was arrested June 15 and charged with murder. He remained in custody with bail set at $250,000. Two witnesses later told investigators Sigala admitted striking Perez. One witness said Sigala told him, “I hit him with a bat,” and said Perez “wasn’t moving.”
Police said the same surveillance camera helped link Moreno to the attack. About an hour and 15 minutes before Perez was killed, the camera captured a man matching Moreno’s description walking to the front door of the vacant house. The man later returned with Sigala and a third person, investigators said. A witness who knew Sigala told police she could not identify the two other men with certainty but believed one was Moreno because of his build and because he often wore a blue bandana like one seen in the video. After Sigala was arrested, investigators said, he told police Moreno was with him during the attack and struck Perez “with a pipe or something.”
The third person seen in the surveillance video has not been publicly identified. Investigators have said that person is believed to have kicked Perez during the assault. Police have not released a motive in the killing, and arrest records do not say what led the three men to the vacant home that day. The case remains centered on the video, the statements from people who knew Sigala and Moreno, and the medical examiner’s findings. Authorities have not announced whether any additional arrests are expected.
The Prairie Hill Street home sits in a Southwest Side area near Palo Alto Road and Palo Alto Park, where police and emergency crews responded the afternoon Perez was found. Investigators searched nearby property after speaking with a neighbor who said he had fought with Perez earlier that day and had fresh facial injuries. During that part of the investigation, officers found Sigala asleep inside a nearby home and interviewed him. The arrest affidavit does not fully detail what Sigala told officers that day, but police later used the video and witness accounts to pursue a murder charge.
The case now moves through Bexar County criminal court with two defendants facing murder charges. Moreno’s next court date had not been detailed in the available records Monday. Sigala’s case remains pending after his June arrest. Prosecutors will be expected to review the surveillance evidence, witness statements and medical findings as the case advances. Police have not said whether the unidentified third person has been named to investigators or whether detectives are seeking more witnesses from the area around Prairie Hill Street.
As of Monday, Moreno and Sigala were both jailed in Bexar County on murder charges tied to Perez’s death. The unidentified third person remained the key public unknown in the investigation, along with any motive behind the fatal beating.
Author note: Last updated July 6, 2026.