Tyler A. Perez

MAYVILLE — A former city resident acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges stemming from the 2014 beating death of a child has been extradited to Pennsylvania on a parole violation warrant.

Tyler A. Perez, 35, was picked up by Pennsylvania authorities Wednesday morning after being held in Chautauqua County Jail on a detainer warrant. He has been on parole dating back to a prior arrest in April 2013 for weapons possession in Moon Township, Pa.

Perez waived extradition Tuesday, and Pennsylvania authorities had been given until Friday to pick him up from the jail, a court clerk said.

After deliberating for less than an hour Monday, a jury found Perez not guilty of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter for his role in the death of Nayla Hodnett. The three-day trial was heard in front of Judge M. William Boller in County Court.

Hodnett died April 17, 2014, as the result of blunt force trauma, and an autopsy at the Erie County Medical Center determined the cause of death to be homicide.

For about five years, Jamestown police continued to investigate the homicide. Information regarding Hodnett’s death was turned over to the District Attorney’s Office, which in March of this year obtained a grand jury indictment.

Perez was represented at trial by Chautauqua County Public Defender Ned Barone, who afterward said he was frustrated the case was brought forward.

“We believed in this case. We believed in the defense,” Barone told reporters Monday. “More than anything else, we felt frustrated because this case got to this point based on, what we believed, was next to nothing as far as evidence is concerned. When your client is put in that situation, it is extremely frustrating and it’s frightening. And I told the jurors it’s a frightening situation for Mr. Perez to end up in this situation based on such little or credible evidence.”

In a statement given to the media, District Attorney Patrick Swanson said, “While I disagree with the jury’s verdict, I have tremendous respect for their work and the legal process.”

“Michael Flaherty worked tirelessly on this case, and I hope his hard work is appreciated even if he was not able to secure a guilty verdict,” the DA continued. “We knew this case would be difficult from the beginning. We believed in it, but it was always going to be difficult.”

In May 2018, Perez was taken into custody in Jamestown on charges of second-degree menacing after allegedly threatening a woman. Jamestown police alerted Pennsylvania authorities to the arrest as Perez was on parole at the time.