SPRINGFIELD — On a March evening in 2023, Jordan Cabrera emerged from a fistfight with a romantic rival outside his son’s basketball practice battered and bruised.
By all accounts, Cabrera lost.
His body wasn’t the only thing that suffered bruises, a Hampden County assistant district attorney told jurors in a murder trial that kicked off Tuesday morning.
Jahvante Perez, the alleged victim, was shot seven times in the parking lot of Higher Expectations gym on Cadwell Drive, witnesses previously said. Perez was reportedly taken to the hospital where he died. He was 25.
Cabrera and Perez had been at odds for some time, according to Assistant Hampden District Attorney Katharine Johnston.
Johnston addressed a jury of nine women and six men during opening remarks.
“He was embarrassed. He was emasculated and his ego was bruised” she said, referring to a hand-to-hand fight between Perez and Cabrera. ”That’s why Jahvante Perez is dead.“
Assistant District Attorney Katharine Johnston prosecutes the case against Jordan Cabrera, who has been charged with murder, in the Hampden County Superior Court on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)Douglas Hook
The primary dispute in the case is whether Cabrera committed first-degree, premeditated murder or manslaughter, a lesser charge that does not carry a life sentence. That will be for the jurors to decide after receiving legal instructions from Judge James Manitsas at the end of the trial.
The trial is expected to last a week.
Defense attorney Daniel D. Kelly told the jury his client suffered a concussion during the fight, and medical experts he intends to call will testify Cabrera’s injury impeded rational thought.
He acted in the heat of passion, Kelly said.
“Jordan Cabrera is not guilty of first-degree murder,” Kelly told jurors. “We’ll begin and end there.”
Kelly argued there was no premeditation, and that his client acted rashly due to his injuries.
“I don’t care how many ‘Law and Order’ shows you’ve watched. I don’t care how many ‘CSIs’ you’ve watched. I don’t care how many John Grisham novels you’ve read,” he said.
Johnston told jurors tensions had been brewing between the men for some time. Cabrera shot back over a text when Perez challenged him:
“Bro, you don’t want this. You weigh about 120 pounds,” Cabrera said, according to Johnston, also adding that the new couple’s infant was probably a “crack baby.”
But Kelly argued Perez was the aggressor in the texts leading up to the altercation on March 10, 2023.
Cabrera’s son and girlfriend watched him retreat to his car, heave a sigh, retrieve a gun from his console and cock his weapon, Johnston said. His child and another boy were rapt in the backseat.
His son and girlfriend pleaded with him.
“Don’t do it,” they said.
Cabrera heaved a full sigh and did it anyway, the prosecutor said.
While there is video evidence from the parking lot, what jurors will likely take from it is the audio, Kelly said.
It’s dark. You can hear shots ring out. The whole ordeal lasted about 90 seconds or less.
