Anthony Perez was 26 when he was shot to death inside an apartment at the Deer Creek Apartments in Elkhart, Indiana, on March 30, 2014. His mother, Maria Botello, publicly pleaded for the arrest of her son’s killer in the weeks after the slaying.

Investigators focused on a friend, 19-year-old Miguel Martinez-Villasenor, after learning the motive was tied to gang affiliation: Martinez-Villasenor objected to a photograph Perez had posted online and went to Perez’s apartment, where he shot him. Martinez-Villasenor fled to Chicago but was arrested there on May 13, 2014, on an Elkhart County warrant and returned to Elkhart County for prosecution.

In August 2014 Martinez-Villasenor pleaded guilty to murder as part of a plea agreement and received a 65-year sentence in the Indiana Department of Correction, with the final five years suspended to non-reporting probation; the agreement included no filing of a criminal gang enhancement. Did anyone who knew Anthony or his circle in Elkhart see tensions escalate before March 30, 2014?