In the winter of 2014, a young family's life in Tempe, Arizona, was shattered by a violent home invasion. On the evening of December 30th, 22-year-old Michael Perez was at his residence on East Manhattan Drive with his wife and their three-year-old son when multiple armed men forced their way into the home. The intruders' motive appeared to be robbery, specifically targeting marijuana that was believed to be in the house. A struggle ensued, and in the chaos, Michael Perez was shot.
His wife and young son were not physically harmed during the ordeal.
For years, the case remained a painful, unsolved chapter for the Perez family and the Tempe Police Department. Investigators released descriptions of the suspects, described as two heavy-set Hispanic males and a third accomplice who was either Hispanic or White with a thin build, but no immediate arrests were made. Michael Perez was known as an entrepreneur, having founded a cannabis-inspired design company. The brazen nature of the crime, a targeted attack on a family home, left the community searching for answers. The suspects fled the scene with an undisclosed amount of marijuana, leaving behind a family irrevocably broken.
A significant breakthrough in the investigation came nearly five years later, in November of 2019. A 34-year-old man named Xavier Williams was arrested on an unrelated misdemeanor warrant. As part of that arrest, a DNA sample was taken from him. This sample proved to be the key that unlocked the cold case. Williams' DNA was a match to evidence that had been collected from the scene of Michael Perez's murder in 2014. Following the DNA match, Williams reportedly made admissions regarding his involvement in the fatal home invasion. He was subsequently booked on charges including first-degree murder, armed robbery, aggravated robbery, and kidnapping. The arrest of Xavier Williams marked a long-awaited step towards justice for Michael Perez and his family.
