‘No fear of consequences’: Bail was too low for Amazon worker who threatened mass shooting, San Antonio police chief says

Police Chief William McManus took to Twitter this week to criticize the “low bail” set by a magistrate judge in the case of a San Antonio man accused of threatening to shoot up a local Amazon delivery station.

Rodolfo Aceves, 19, was arrested last week and charged with making a terroristic threat. Authorities say he threatened to attack an Amazonlocation on the South Side and a school.

Aceves, an Amazon subcontractor, also said he considered Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old who shot and killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, an idol.

“Officers wasted no time arresting a man who not only planned to carry out a mass shooting at an Amazon warehouse, but also openly sung the praises of the Uvalde gunman,” McManus said on Twitter. “He was given a low bail and was released right after he was arrested.”

“All the mass shootings that have happened recently, and we’ve got a guy who’s threatening to do the same and he’s back out on the street?” he said.

After Aceves was arrested on June 27, Magistrate Judge Marilisa Janssen set bail at $50,000. That means Aceves likely only had to pay about 10 percent — or $5,000 — through an agreement with a bail bondsman to be released from jail. Some bail bondsmen require even less.

Alternatively, he could have paid the bail amount in full.

As a condition of Aceves’ bond, Janssen required him to be placed on house arrest, wear a GPS monitor, and submit to regular drug and alcohol testing, according to court records. She also prohibited him from possessing any firearms or weapons.

While he was in jail, Janssen required that Aceves be placed in the “Special Needs Unit” because his father told police that he had a history of mental illness.

Magistrates take a variety of factors into consideration when setting a person’s bail, including recommendations from prosecutors, the circumstances of the case, the suspect’s criminal history, the suspect’s ability to pay and the risk the suspect poses to the community. Aceves did not have a criminal history in Bexar County, court records show.

McManus did not single out Janssen in his comments — instead focusing on how many magistrate judges, he believes, set bail too low.

Janssen did not respond to a request for comment.

Christian Henricksen, chief of litigation for the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office, said prosecutors originally recommended setting Aceves’ bail at $65,000. They also recommended the slew of bond conditions, such as house arrest and GPS tracking, that the judge ended up requiring.

However, Henricksen said magistrate judges are limited in how high they can set a suspect’s bail. Under state law, a judge can’t set bail so high that the defendant can’t get out.

The purpose of bail is to ensure a person facing charges will return for their trial or hearing.

“The gut reaction when someone commits a violent offense in particular is that they shouldn’t get out in general,” Henricksen said. “The law doesn’t allow for that. Unless there’s a change in the law, people will bond out pretrial, as long as people are willing to pay.”

‘Disturbing’ remarks

According to an affidavit for his arrest, police were dispatched to the Amazon delivery station on the South Side on June 27 after another employee reported that Aceves had made “disturbing” remarks about committing a mass shooting.

During a fire drill three days earlier, Aceves told an employee it would “be a good idea to pull the fire alarm and have all the employees exit the building and to commit a mass shooting,” the affidavit said. Aceves allegedly followed the statement by saying he would commit such an atrocity.

When the employee told Aceves that she had to pick up her children from school, he allegedly said he would follow her so that he would know which school to shoot up, the affidavit said.

The employee didn’t immediately report Aceves because he had recently purchased a handgun and a rifle, and she feared retaliation, according to the affidavit.

Police interviewed Aceves’ father, who said that his son suffered from mental illness. He also said he was worried that Aceves had purchased weapons, the affidavit said.

While Aceves did not have a criminal history, McManus said his bail should have been higher. He said there are other cases where suspects do have criminal histories and yet their bail is low.

“People often ask what’s causing an increase in violent crime,” McManus said on social media. “One of the main reasons, I believe: No fearof consequences. We’ve got people that we’re arresting, and re-arresting, and re-arresting again. To say that SAPD is not doing their job — that’s simply not true.”

Cash vs risk-based bail

In Bexar County, judges have not relied on a bond schedule, or a set guidelines to determine a suspect’s bail, for several years — due in part to a federal ruling in 2018 regarding similar practices in Harris County.

As a result of that case, misdemeanor defendants awaiting trial in Harris County are no longer jailed simply because they can’t afford bail. A similar case regarding felony suspects is currently pending.

Henricksen said the federal ruling shows that you can’t have a “one-size fits-all approach for bail.”

“If you have two people charged with the same crime, if one guy’s poor and another guy is rich, the bond shouldn’t be the same,” Henricksen said. “If they have money, they are probably going to post bond. If they don’t, they probably are going to sit in jail. It doesn’t help public safety. It doesn’t create an equitable justice system.”

He said an indigent defendant could be held in jail on a misdemeanor criminal trespassing charge for many months — simply because he doesn’t have the $20 or $30 to post bail through a bail bondsman. But a capital murder defendant, held on a $1 million bail, might have the resources to pay.

Any reforms of the bail system would be up to the Texas Legislature because state law dictates many bond practices.

Under one potential reform, judges could hold a suspect before their trial if that person posed a significant risk to the community.

If judges had had that option in Aceves’ case, would prosecutors have sought to keep Aceves behind bars ahead of his trial?

“I don’t want to comment specifically on this case,” Henricksen said. “But if we have a good reason to believe that a person is going to shoot up a school or any sort of public place, then that person is dangerous. If the law was risked-base, instead of money-based, then the judge would have the ability to make that determination.”

He also balked at the idea — that McManus articulated — that suspects in Bexar County don’t fear consequences. He said the Bexar County jail’s population is the highest it’s been in five years.

“Our prosecutors are in court, all day every day, trying to make sure, particularly on violent crimes, that suspects are being held accountable,” he said. “They are burning the midnight oil.”

Staff Writer Taylor Pettaway contributed to this report.
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