A woman who testified under oath at a trial in Bexar County said a man assaulted her in his apartment and later in a strip-center barbershop, and that she called 911 after the incident on May 4, 2024.

The witness described the encounter on the stand: “He told me to lie down on the bed, and I didn't wanna lie down, and that was when he pushed me. He was insulting me, and he was telling me that everything was my fault.” The court and attorneys then reviewed a recorded 911 call and photographs the San Antonio Police Department’s crime-scene unit took the next day.

The jury heard that the recording alleged to be the 911 call was played from a disk marked by the state; the witness identified the audio as the call she made. San Antonio Police Communications paralegal Lasonya Robinson told the court that a copy of the 911 call had been preserved and that the recording contained both the caller’s Spanish and an interpreter from LanguageLine Solutions.

Detective Jorge Rodriguez of the San Antonio Police Department’s Crime Scene Unit testified that he photographed the complainant on May 5, 2024, and that the photos showed redness and bruising. The court admitted three photographs marked by the state into evidence without objection. Investigator Rodriguez said the full-body and injury photographs fairly and accurately depicted how the complainant appeared on the date he photographed her.

The prosecutor also showed the jury a photo of the man later identified by the state, and the witness confirmed that the rings visible in that photo were similar to those the man sometimes wore. Officers on scene said the man was sometimes seen drinking from glass bottles and wearing multiple gold rings.

The judge paused the admission of the recording’s Spanish-language content for additional foundation testimony. The court said that, although the state had authenticated the recording as the 911 call, it had not yet laid a foundation showing the LanguageLine interpreter’s Spanish translation met whatever formal requirements the court would require for the jury to rely on the translated content. The court allowed the state to present further testimony about the translation foundation before the jury would be allowed to hear the Spanish portions as translated.

The trial record shows the call was logged to an address in the 5700 block of Evers/Everest (the transcript uses both spellings) and was received at about 8:53 p.m. on May 4, 2024. The crime-scene photos were taken the following day. The jury was excused and the state rested later in the day; several witnesses who had testified were marked subject to recall.

Why it matters: The witness’s live identification, the 911 recording and the CSI photographs are central to the prosecution’s case. The court’s reservation about the translated portions of the 911 call means a portion of the recording’s content will require additional foundation before jurors may consider the interpreted Spanish-language statements.

Courtroom context: The testimony about the assault and the 911 call came during the state’s presentation of evidence. Several SAPD officers and an investigator from the crime-scene unit described their contacts with the complainant, the time and location of the call, and the photographs they took. The judge instructed the jury that evidence admissibility questions would be resolved before the jury could consider some translated content.