TOOELE, Utah, Nov. 19, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — Court documents reveal new information on the arrest of a Tooele man in the beating death of his male roommate.
Richard Perales, 55, has been charged with the murder of his 60-year-old roommate, whose name has not been released. The suspect and victim also lived with the victim’s girlfriend, according to Perales’ probable cause statement.
The statement says the female roommate called dispatch at 2:20 a.m. Thursday from the shared basement apartment in the 100 block of N. Third Street.
The caller said she returned home after getting off work “to find her 60-year-old boyfriend unconscious and not breathing on the living room couch in their apartment, in which they reside with another roommate, 55-year-old-male Richard Perales.”
“The reporting party indicated to dispatchers that her boyfriend looked like he ‘got the sh-t beat out of him,'” says the probable cause statement filed in Perales’ arrest. “The victim was ultimately pronounced dead after resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.”
While doing a sweep of the apartment, Tooele City police located Perales asleep in another room, the statement says, adding, “No one else was found inside the basement apartment.”
The TCPD officer who filed the statement said he located the victim on the floor near the couch.
“I observed severe head and facial trauma, primarily visible on the left side of the decedent’s face,” the statement says, adding circumstances “suggest the victim’s death resulted from suspicious circumstances and foul play.”
Arrest
Perales agreed to be interviewed at the police department, and detectives noted the sweatpants he was wearing had red stains that appeared to be blood, the statement says. Perales consented to have officers collect his clothing as evidence.
After a search warrant was approved, detectives observed a pair of dark shoes with yellow soles. The shoes had blood on the bottom and the top of the shoe, the statement says.
“Detectives collected video surveillance from the same night where Mr. Perales is wearing the same sweatpants he arrived at the police department in, and he is wearing the same shoes that had blood on them.
“A juvenile was in an upstairs room and could hear the victim being assaulted by Mr. Perales and identified his voice and the one involved in the assault.”
Perales denied any physical altercation with the victim.
“Mr. Perales confirmed he wore the same shoes to the bar with blood on them,” the affidavit says. “When Mr. Perales was asked why he had blood on those items, he asked that a lawyer be present for further questions.
“Mr. Perales advised he wanted to tell detectives of things he remembered, and he no longer needed his attorney present. Mr. Perales said he did remember coming home from the bar, and the victim was talking negatively about his mother, and calling him derogatory names.”
Perales told officers “he backhanded the victim, but didn’t remember anything after that.”
The suspect confirmed that he and the victim had been “cohabitants for the past several months.”
Perales has been charged with:
- Murder, a first-degree felony
- Domestic violence in the presence of a child — injury/weapon/death, a third-degree felony
He is being held in the Tooele County jail, without bail.
Gephardt Daily will have more information as the case develops.
