State dealt early blow in death penalty case. Key witness nixes plea, refuses to testify
State prosecutors were dealt a blow Monday when the key witness at the start of a high-profile death penalty trial nixed his plea deal and refused to testify against the accused killer of a small-time drug dealer.
The decision could mean that Terry Nealy, 33 — an admitted co-triggerman in the 2013 shooting death of Luis Miguel Perez — will remain in prison beyond 2050. Had he testified, Nealy likely would have been released in about five years.
Nealy and Anthawn Ragan were taken into custody in December 2013 for the shooting death of Luis Miguel Perez, 21, in the outdoor hallway of his rented motel apartment in North Miami. More than a decade after Perez’s death, it’s still not clear why he was killed. Though Nealy claimed it was a robbery, a friend of Perez’s said the two men left about $800 in Perez’s pocket.
Prosecutors with the Miami-Dade State Attorneys’ Office believe Perez’s murder was the start of a month-long violent spree by Ragan that left at least four people shot and two of them dead. He’s already been convicted of one attempted murder charge.
READ MORE: Gunman accused of two murders, including 10 year old at nail salon, on trial for his life
Combative with judge
Nealy’s choice of accessories in court Monday was almost as bizarre as the scene he orchestrated. He had to be coerced into taking the stand. And when he did, in his orange prison garb accessorized with a pair of darkly tinted sunglasses, Nealy either refused to answer or ignored most questions from Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Marisa Tinkler-Mendez.
Nealy was even combative when the judge ordered him to raise his right hand.
“I don’t want to be here,” he said.
When asked if he understood the plea deal he agreed to, Nealy responded, “I don’t know what that means.” Tinkler-Mendez gave Nealy a final warning before his dismissal.
“If you violate the plea agreement,” she said, “there may be ramifications to that.”
Then, accused gunman Ragan’s murder trial became even more bizarre.
Earlier testimony paints murder picture
With Nealy sidelined, the judge allowed his testimony on the Motel Seven murder from an earlier trial in which he admitted under oath that he and Ragan shot and killed Perez. But instead of handing the transcript to jurors, prosecutors and defense attorneys took turns playing the part of Nealy and his questioner while reading directly from the papers.
During the back-and-forth, Nealy said he and Ragan were headed to a strip club, when they detoured to buy drugs. Nealy said he remained in the car in the parking while Ragan ran up the steps of the Motel Seven behind Perez, who had just returned from a brief trip to the store.
And Nealy said, when he heard Ragan’s gun go off, he took off up the steps, gun in hand. With Perez writhing on the ground, Nealy said he fired several more times into him.
“That’s about my safety. He’s still moving. He’s reaching,” Nealy said under oath.
Perez, rushed to the hospital in a friend’s car, died. But, Nealy said, undeterred, he and Ragan went to the strip club after the shooting. Then the remorse set in and they left.
“I made a big mistake and I got to suffer,” Nealy said through one of his proxy’s under cross examination. “If I ain’t never pulled that trigger, I don’t know that I’d be here.”
Perez, 21, who witnesses said dealt mostly weed out of his rental apartment at the motel, was killed around midnight Nov. 1, 2013. Ragan was 19 at the time.
A week later on Nov. 7, police say Ragan shot Kevin Burke as he rode his bike home from a friend’s house at 2 a.m. Burke testified that a car pulled up and a man asked him to hand over money. When Burke refused and sped up, he was shot. Burke was injured and survived after a month in the hospital.
But Ragan wasn’t linked to Burke’s shooting until six years later when forensics proved the gun he used was the same one that killed Perez and the same one that would be used three weeks later in yet another shooting. He was convicted of the attempted murder of Burke.
10-year-old boy killed in another shooting
Three weeks after Perez was killed, police say Ragan and another man entered the Hong Kong Nails Salon just outside North Miami city limits and robbed staff and customers of $300 in cash and jewelry. Before leaving, police say, Ragan turned and fired several times into the store, striking and seriously injuring store owner Hai Nam Vu and killing his 10-year-old son Aaron Vu.
A trial date for Aaron’s murder and the attempted murder of his father has not yet been set. Hai Nam Vu is expected to testify at Ragan’s trial, likely before the end of the week. The trial continues Tuesday.
This story was originally published March 31, 2025 at 6:45 PM.
