Club owner testifies he kneeled on patron to stop alleged weapon grab during 2023 brawl at El Volcán

Mariano Rendon Jr., who testified that he serves as a host at El Volcán (also referred to in the record as Joe’s Volcano), told jurors he used force to stop a crowding and alleged weapon access during an Aug. 19–20, 2023 altercation at the club.

Rendon said he “put 1 knee on his stomach” to stop a patron later identified as Pablo Rodriguez from reaching a security-guard holster and a weapon. “I was concerned for everybody’s safety, and I did not wanna have a massacre in my club,” Rendon testified. He said his action was meant to buy “milliseconds” for other security to arrive and contain the situation.

Rendon described club procedures for last call and clearing beer buckets — saying staff begin telling patrons to finish drinks around 1:45 a.m., pick up beer buckets at about 1:55 a.m., and the club must stop service by 2:15 a.m. under Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission rules. He testified the club is roughly 10,000 square feet and that typical Saturday attendance can reach the upper 800s; he also said he tries to staff more security than the minimum required, sometimes “8 to 13” officers on busy nights.

On the night in question Rendon said he was circulating the dance floor when he saw a “mountain” of people attacking someone; he pushed into the pile and began separating people. He said he initially did not know who was in the pile but later learned one individual on the ground was Rodriguez and a security officer, Anthony Cochran, was on top of him. Rendon testified that other participants kept re-engaging, including a woman who, he said, repeatedly approached him and at one point scratched his neck. Photos of scratches and marks on Rendon’s neck and back that he said his wife took the night of the incident were admitted into evidence as defense exhibits 9 and 10.

Rendon also testified that after the melee the club’s inventory showed a handheld radio and a baton were missing. He said the radio’s GPS initially pinged on I‑10 near Loop 1604 at a tire shop and later to a location in Nixon, Texas, and that a police officer from Nixon visited the area when they followed up on the ping. Rendon said the baton was not located.

Video evidence played for the jury included a hazy surveillance clip from the dance floor and a cellphone recording that captured only the end of the encounter. Rendon told the court the cellphone clip appears to have been edited and omitted the actions he said he took — including running into the pile and peeling people off. On the surveillance footage Rendon pointed out where he entered the crowd, where he placed one knee on Rodriguez’s stomach, and where other people and objects (a hat and a radio) disappeared from the frame.

On cross-examination Rendon acknowledged he did not provide all internal camera feeds or body-worn camera recordings to investigators and said he had expected detectives to follow up; he testified that some cameras were oriented for theft prevention and not optimized to capture dance-floor activity in dark, strobe-lit conditions.

Rendon said the club attempted to document injuries and that a porter, identified as Calvin, was treated for a dislocated shoulder and missed work after the incident. He testified that staff and patrons exchanged calls and texts after the fight in efforts to de-escalate and to coordinate accounts of what happened; he denied intentionally trying to injure anyone and said his priority was preventing access to a weapon.

After the state’s direct examination and cross-examination, the defense rested. The trial record shows the parties played multiple videos and admitted photographs and surveillance stills as exhibits during Rendon’s testimony.