SAN DIEGO — The mother of the defendant accused of gunning down a Cathedral Catholic High School teacher in North Park took the witness stand Monday in her son's murder trial.
Prosecutors allege the defendant, Jesse Alvarez, shot and killed the teacher, Mario Fierro, because Fierro was engaged to the gunman's ex-girlfriend.
In court on Monday, Cynthia Alvarez testified she was inside the defendant’s Serra Mesa home when police stormed into the house looking for her son.
“There was maybe 18 officers with all kinds of sizes of guns, all pointing at our front door,” the mother testified. Police arrived on February 1, 2021, the same morning Fierro was shot in the street in front of his home in North Park.
Cathedral Catholic High School had posted online an engagement photo of Fierro and his fiancée, Amy Gembara, who was also a teacher at Cathedral Catholic. The defendant’s mother testified when her son found out about the engagement, he felt “very sad and very depressed.”
Alvarez is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of lying in wait for Fierro and shooting him six times. He has pleaded not guilty. The defense claims the shooting was self-defense.
Gembara had tried to take out a restraining order against her ex-boyfriend a year before the shooting, but the judge denied the request.
“I told him to stop pursuing her because she wasn't worth it anymore. She wasn't good for him. I mean, it wasn't healthy for either of them,” the mother testified. “He was kind of lovesick. I guess he just thought maybe she'd come back to him.”
Later in the day, a San Diego Police Department detective testified the defendant searched for the name of his girlfriend and her fiancé multiple times before the shooting and followed 97 social media accounts associated with Cathedral Catholic High School.
Prosecutors are expected to wrap up their case on Tuesday. The defense will then start calling witnesses, including the defendant himself.
Watch Related: Profile of Cathedral Catholic High School teacher’s accused killer (Feb 2, 2021)