EconoLodge pimp sentenced to four years in prison

Patrick Perez, 27, has been described as a “pimp” who rented...

A man convicted last week of aggravated promotion of prostitution was sentenced Monday to four years in prison.

Patrick Perez was 27 when he was charged two years ago with aggravated promotion of prostitution, trafficking of persons, felon in possession of a firearm and possession of a prohibited sawed-off shotgun. The state proceeded only on the prostitution charge.

San Antonio police answered a call around 2:45 a.m. Feb. 19, 2014, after someone reported that a person with a shotgun was stealing televisions from three rooms at an EconoLodge motel in the 6000 block of Interstate 10 on the Northwest Side.

Scroll through the slideshow to see which cities and towns in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metropolitan area have the highest crime rates. Scroll through the slideshow to see which cities and towns in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metropolitan area have the highest crime rates. Photo: Jack Garcia, File Photo: Jack Garcia, File Image 1 of / 54 Caption Close EconoLodge pimp sentenced to four years in prison 1 / 54 Back to Gallery

Officers said then that a woman at the scene told them that Perez had threatened her, so police took him into custody after he ran into one of the three rooms he had rented and locked the door, a police report stated.

An unidentified woman at the scene told police that Perez was a “pimp,” who had posted photographs of women online, police said.

Prosecutors argued in their closing statement that Perez, who faced between 2 and 10 years in prison, should get as close to the maximum as possible because though he expressed remorse and tearfully apologized on the witness stand, he had attempted to run his prostitution business from jail.

“He’s a manipulator,” lead prosecutor Ryan Wright told the jury, adding that there just wasn’t one woman involved, but several.

Wright reminded them of an audio the prosecution played from a conversation Perez had with one of the women alleged to have been one of his prostitutes while he was in jail.

He could be heard telling her, “It’s $1,000 to get me out, you’re gonna make it, and I want (name withheld) helping you … I don’t want you working by yourself.”

Defense attorney Oscar Cantu Jr. told the jurors in his closing statement that Perez has changed and is “getting help” to stay off of meth. Cantu said Perez isn’t the worst defendant. He pointed out that even Perez’s estranged wife and his mother-in-law said he was a good, caring man before his drug use.

“He had a real life behind this common theme of drug use and crime,” Cantu said.

ezavala@express-news.net