Closing arguments by both sides were a no-holds barred barrage of reflection of a trial which was definitely not for the faint of heart.

"Members of the jury, because the defendant stole over $1,500.00, the burden before you is to decide whether this man was responsible for this theft," stated Asst. Prosecutor Jonathan White.

"It takes a lot of manpower to search because there was no paper trail, but this was an error on his part.  This information was left on ProComp.  What defense has to do is prove that all witnesses are liars."

"If I was a witness," stated White, " I wouldn't want to be on the witness stand to get cross-examined by Mr. Muñoz or Mr. Herring for that matter.  Let's give them credit, these guys are good."

Then he went on to say that people with prior convictions (Referring to Andres Rodriguez) can be good witnesses.  "Where's the motive, it's just not there."  What White was saying is that he doesn't feel like these witnesses would face the possibility of perjury when testifying.

"The biggest problem I have is the length of time it took to bring this case to trial- Justice delayed is justice denied.  These events happened six years ago, we've had to defend something that happened 5-6 years ago.  It's an impossible task," stated Defense Counsel Rogelio Muñoz, "It was their decision to bring this case to court now.  Nothing else happened after 2008.  If these people feel so strongly that this man is a thief, why would they let him get re-elected?"

"They knew that this money hadn't been turned in and they didn't do anything about it.  That's ridiculous."

"How in Heaven's name do you explain this, a Texas Ranger lost the most crucial piece of evidence so that we could show it to you and convince you to convict this man.  Should you convict a person on the basis of sloppy police work?"

"Four prosecutors, twelve investigators, state attorneys and the sheriff's department came in.  Imagine the tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars, 30,000 documents, only a percentage of all documents for over five years, wow!" said Defense Counsel Earl Herring.  "And all they could come up with was a possibly unauthenticated document, this is doubt in and of itself."

"Why would the state delay this case," stated Lead Prosecutor Lance Kutnick, "Witnesses could die or go away.  There is no plot to get a judge, you need time to see what was going on and who was wrong doing.  Was it sloppy to lose evidence, yes, without a doubt.  If you have that belief, let's go home right now.  Gabriel Garcia was a dang good witness, he didn't lie, he wouldn't commit perjury six years later."

"Hold him accountable or send him back.  He was the ring leader and the puppetmaster.  We ask you to convict him guilty of over $1,500.00.  If not take option #2."

The jury took one hour and forty-one minutes to return a verdict.  They convicted former Justice of the Peace Cesar Perez of theft by a public servant of $1,500-$20,000.

Sentencing will be on October 9th.