Man Accused of Assaulting San Angelo Police Officers Gets 30 Years in Prison

Fermin Gonzales Rayos, age 38, pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated assault of a public servant this morning in Judge Ben Woodward’s 119^th district court. Rayos stands accused of brandishing two knives and threatening three San Angelo Police officers; these officers included Francisco Flores, Joshua Jones, and Sergeant Christopher Heronema.

Just before midnight on April 20, 2015, Flores was dispatched to 1300 E. 17 St. in order to investigate a call of a suspicious subject in the area.

According to Flores’ testimony, when he saw Rayos wandering around the area, he asked him, “Are you okay?” This was simply a way to check on his status. When the officer saw that Rayos had a knife, he backed his vehicle up when he began to approach. As he moved toward Flores, Rayos said, “Stay back; get away, copper!” and started to make stabbing motions in his direction.

At that point, Flores contacted Dispatch asking for backup and several additional officers came onto the scene. The police attempted to set up a perimeter, constantly communicating with one other in order to safely corral Rayos into an area away from the public. Their immediate goal was to prevent the disturbed man from wandering into a more heavily populated area.

When the perimeter was established, Heronema said that he tried to calm Rayos down with a PA system from his vehicle. When Rayos began approaching his vehicle, Heronema attempted to incapacitate him with his Taser. Only one probe connected and Rayos dropped one of his knives. When Rayos retrieved the knife, Heronema fired a second shot with his Taser and Rayos lost control of his body.

As Rayos was incapacitated, the officers quickly approached and brought him into custody. An EMT appeared at the scene, but Rayos refused service and was sent to jail.

This morning, as the case began, the record stated that psychologist Dr. Jarvis Wright confirmed that Rayos was competent for his hearing. However, Nathan Butler, Rayos' defense attorney, said that Dr. Jason Dunham would confirm that Rayos had a bout of psychosis at the time of the incident. Butler said the defendant claims that he has limited memory of the incident as well.

“This was not an attempt to assault these officers,” Butler said. “This was a cry for help. None of these officers were ever in danger.”

The State, however, argued otherwise.

Sgt. Heronema was the state’s first witness. He said when he arrived at the scene of the alleged crime, he attempted to assist the officers with containing Rayos.

“Almost definitely, if I would’ve left my vehicle, it would have become a deadly force situation,” Heronema said.

He added that Rayos shouted at the officers throughout the incident, repeatedly telling the officers to shoot him.

Heronema told the court that when Rayos made the threatening motions with his knife, he was about 10-15 yards away from the vehicle. However, he felt safe inside his vehicle and Rayos did not try to attack the vehicle directly. For each witness, the defense confirmed the distance of Rayos from the vehicles, the officer’s safety in their cars, and that Rayos did not attack the officers directly.

Heronema said, “[Rayos] appeared like he was on some kind of substance,” and “he appeared to be [confused].”

Flores was the second witness for the State. When asked if the knives were capable of causing death or serious injury, Flores said, “Absolutely.” Both pocket knives contained a 3- to 5-inch blade.

The defense then asked Flores if Rayos ever was within 10 feet away from the vehicle. Flores said, “I never allowed him to.” Each of the officers who testified agreed that they would not allow Rayos to get close to their vehicles for their own safety. When Rayos moved in their direction, they would back up and widen the distance between him to their cars.

Footage from Flores’ patrol vehicle was then shown to the court. The video supported the testimony of the officers, giving the court a glimpse of what they saw that night.

When the State questioned Officer Tony Dietz, the witness confirmed Rayos was legally allowed to be in that location that night and it was not illegal for him to own those knives.

According to Dietz, when Rayos was closest to an officer, he did not try to attack. Dietz also submitted the knives into evidence himself.

Officer Patrick Garrett, another State witness, said when he arrived at the scene of the alleged crime, the defendant had “dual wielding knives and [was] acting out of control.”

Garrett brought evidence from the case to the court. He opened the two small boxes and confirmed the evidence in question was inside, and established the evidence was zip tied to the bottom of the box. The court did not specifically state what the evidence was, but it is safe to assume that the evidence was the two knives that Rayos had in his possession at the time of the alleged crime.

Butler asked Garrett about the police department’s procedure for drawing a weapon. At the time, the officers never produced firearms. According to Garrett, the officers will only shoot if there is a chance of loss of life.

According to Officer Joshua Jones, Rayos continued to resist until the officers got handcuffs on him and got rid of the knives. The officers also found remains of a broken meth pipe in the defendant’s pocket.

After this witness testimony, the court recessed until 1:30 p.m. in order to give Dr. Dunham time to take the stand. When he arrived, the doctor established that he has been a forensic psychologist for 15 years, and he has worked for the court on a regular basis for about 10 years.

Dunham said it was possible Rayos was intoxicated at the time, or he was having withdrawals. Furthermore, Rayos’ family had discussed placing him in a state hospital on the night in question, so that may have had an effect on his mental state.

After hearing this statement, the State objected. Assistant District Attorney Jason Ferguson said Butler was trying to work too many insinuations of insanity into the case, which did not necessarily apply. The prosecutor said that only claims of psychosis, or a disconnect with reality, were relevant.

However, the defense said the defendant’s panic attack was essential to the case and the objection was overruled.

Dunham then continued, saying that it was also possible that Rayos was not intoxicated.

When Butler asked if Rayos had any intent to harm officers, Dunham said it appeared Rayos did not have intentions to harm the officers, but to provoke them to harm him.

Ferguson then questioned the witness. He asked if there was a scientific basis that a panic attack makes an individual unable to threaten someone, and Dunham responded in the negative. Regardless, Dunham said that the defendant “was not acting or thinking rationally at the time.”

For Butler’s final argument, he cited a similar crime in Austin. According to the court’s decision at that time, harm has to be immediately imminent in order for it to be classified as aggravated assault.

Butler also highlighted that the officers in question all said they felt safe in their cars, and that Rayos made no attempt to directly attack them while they were in their cars. He mentioned the distance that Rayos kept from the officers and that a thrown knife couldn’t have broken the windshield. Furthermore, when he had a chance to retaliate after being Tasered the first time, Rayos did not.

Butler said there is no way of knowing why Rayos was waving those knives. He said he may have been “swinging them at an invisible chicken” for all he knew.

Butler claimed that Rayos “didn’t have intent to harm anybody. This was a cry for help, not a criminal offense.”

Ferguson then took the floor, saying that Rayos was certainly acting dangerous at the time, but he could be detained without harm. He pointed out that the officers detained Rayos without serious violence; however, they were certainly in danger. He pointed out that in the officers’ testimonies, none of them wanted to get out of their vehicle for fear of being harmed by Rayos.

The prosecutor also pointed out that the officers were still in danger even though they managed to stay out of Rayos’s way throughout the encounter.

“If someone runs towards you and you outrun that person, there was still a threat,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson then described the three charges of aggravated assault; he argued that Rayos posed a threat to the officer in question in each case. He said that the police not shooting at Rayos did not make him any less of a threat.

He also claimed that Dunham’s testimony was merely speculation, and the only thing the court could take from it was that Rayos had a panic attack. He finished by saying that Rayos knew exactly what he was doing because he told the officers they would have to shoot him.

After hearing this round of testimony, Judge Woodward called a recess for about half an hour as he reviewed the evidence and the cases Butler presented him. When he returned, he found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt on all three counts of aggravated assault.

The court then turned to setting Rayos’ sentence. Butler called Dunham back to the stand, discussing Rayos’ history of mental health troubles.

Rayos has a history of not taking his prescribed medicine; instead, he uses methamphetamine to self-medicate. Dunham said this practice may be related to the case in question.

When Butler asked Dunham if Rayos could function in society if he took medicine regularly and stopped self-medicating, Dunham said he “would be more stable, that’s for sure.”

Butler suggested that Rayos could use someone to monitor Rayos’ medicine, such as MHMR. Dunham agreed this program would help.

Next, Butler called Rayos to the stand. Rayos said the recent death of his mother had contributed to his mental state at the time of the crime. He said that he had been sober 10 days, but he had insomnia due to depression up to 3 or 4 days.

Rayos claimed that he didn't know of programs such as those offered by MHMR, and that he would be compliant with his medication whatever the sentence.

Butler said that Rayos could function in society if he had someone such as MHMR managing his medication. Unlike before, Rayos now has knowledge of the assistance available to him.

When asked about the night of the crime, Rayos said, “They could’ve killed me. It scares me. Somebody else could’ve gotten hurt.”

He spoke of his daughter and his responsibility to her.

“I’m sorry,” Rayos said. “I’m really just asking for help.”

Ferguson said that 15 years, the minimum sentence for this charge, is a long time. However, Ferguson claimed that since Rayos has a history of not taking medication and becoming violent, that should be taken into consideration.

After another fairly brief recess, Woodward returned with his verdict. After mentioning that Rayos could have been killed that night, Woodward expressed that he was impressed by the police’s discipline and that nobody got hurt. He then sentenced Rayos to 30 years in prison.

Woodward apologized that he could not do more to help Rayos with his medication and depression issues. However, he hopes the officials in whatever prison Rayos attends will attempt to assist him. He also gave Rayos credit for the time he spent in prison back to April 20, 2015.

Woodward also told Rayos he has a right to appeal. According to Butler, Rayos plans to.

Rayos has been arrested for multiple crimes in the past, including murder, indecency with a child, and assault with a deadly weapon. For more information about this case, check out San Angelo LIVE!’s previous article.