*** MEDIA ADVISORY***August 28, 2013CONVICTED MURDERER, OSCAR PEREZ, LOSES ANOTHER ROUND ON APPEAL, CONTINUES TO SERVE 85 YEARSMedia Contact: Curtis T. Hill, Jr. 296-1888***The Indiana Court of Appeals today affirmed the result of a recent appeal by Oscar Eduardo Perez concerning his 2006 convictions for Murder and Attempted Murder. Perez was the shooter in a February 2006 shooting death of 14 year-old Rogelio Reyes during a high speed chase in the late-evening hours on U.S. 33 in Goshen. Saul Rodriguez was also injured in the shooting.Perez’s convictions were affirmed on appeal in 2007. In this most recent installment, Perez challenged his convictions in a proceeding known as post-conviction relief. Post-conviction relief proceedings allow a convicted person to challenge his conviction by alleging that his defense attorneys were not effective. Perez alleged that his trial counsel was not effective for failing to raise self-defense at trial, and that his appellate counsel was not effective for failing to challenge the additional charge of Attempted Murder. Evidentiary hearings were held in November 2011 and June 2012. The State was represented throughout these proceedings by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney David Francisco. Hon. Terry Shewmaker, Judge of the Elkhart County Circuit Court, denied Perez post-conviction relief in an order dated November 21, 2012. Perez appealed that decision to the Indiana Court of Appeals.In today’s opinion, the Court of Appeals found that Perez’s attorneys were not ineffective. The Court discarded Perez’s contention that self-defense was a viable defense, stating that such a defense was “doomed to fail.” The Court further held that the State was permitted to add the Attempted Murder charge, and that such an objection on appeal would not have succeeded.Perez, who is incarcerated in the Indiana Department of Corrections, was one of 40 people indicted in federal court in 2012 for operating a methamphetamine ring from within the Indiana prison system. Yesterday, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana announced that two individuals, Russell Yerden and Michael Foley, were each sentenced for their participation in that ring. Yerden was sentenced to 27 years, 3 months; Foley was sentenced to 25 years.Although Perez’s federal case is not yet resolved, this most recent decision by the Indiana Court of Appeals ensures that Perez will continue to serve the 85 years of State incarceration he received for the Murder and Attempted Murder in Elkhart County.***An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.Under Indiana law, all persons arrested for a criminal offense are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.