Exclusive: Daniel Perry Breaks Silence on Justice and Politics | 11.24.24
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Daniel Perry, a former army sergeant, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fatally shooting an armed BLM protester during the summer of 2020. After spending more than a year behind bars, Perry was granted a full pardon by Texas Governor Greg Abbott in May of this year.

Now he's speaking out for the first time in an exclusive interview with The Daily Wire and accusing the district attorney who convicted him of political targeting. My entire belief system of the justice system was destroyed because I felt like it was weaponized against me. In this episode, we hear from Perry and the reporter who sat down with him for his first public comments on his controversial case.

I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's November 24th, and this is a Sunday edition of Morning Wire. With Trump in, we can finally exhale. But the fact of the matter is, our nation is broke, and that debt is a house of cards that can't quickly be dismantled.

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Joining us now is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo, who conducted an exclusive interview with Daniel Perry. Hey, Amanda. So you spoke to Perry about the incident and the politically charged aftermath. This is the first time he's talked to the media since he was pardoned. First, can you recap the case for listeners who might not be familiar?

Sure. Perry, who was then 30 years old, was stationed outside of Austin, Texas in 2020, and he was working as an Uber driver for some extra cash. On July 25th, after he dropped off a passenger, he found himself in the midst of a Black Lives Matter protest where at least two protesters were armed.

We'll hear from Perry in his own words about that incident, but he ended up fatally shooting Garrett Foster. Foster approached Perry's car window while open carrying a loaded AK-47. Perry and Foster are both white males and both veterans.

Perry was later charged with murder by a liberal George Soros-backed DA named Jose Garza. Perry was convicted of murder in April of 2023, and a year after that, in May of 2024, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas issued a full pardon to Perry, and he called out Garza for what he said were politically motivated actions.

So a dramatic turn of events for Perry. Let's start from the beginning. What did Perry tell you about the night of the incident? He told me that he had no intention of ending up near the protest. And when he realized he was by a crowd of people, he stopped his vehicle. Here's what he says happened from there. A guy jumped in front of my vehicle so I couldn't drive any further. And somebody threw a water bottle at my windshield. That's when I honked my horn.

They start rocking and shaking my car and banging on the fist and kicking it. And the guy approached me with an AK-47 and he motioned me to roll my windows down and

At this point in time, I'm kind of in a state of shock and I complied with him. I don't know why I complied with him, but I complied, wrote my orders down. He said something that was completely muffled. I had no idea what he was saying. And then he takes two steps back and he points, starts raising the barrel of his AK-47 at me. And my body reacted on its own. I grabbed my revolver and I shot him.

Perry said he sped away to try to get to safety, and he heard gunshots going off behind him. There was a second shooter in the crowd, but Perry said he thought he had missed Foster, and Foster was now trying to kill him. The second shooter left three bullet holes in Perry's vehicle. He's been identified by authorities, and they've determined that he acted cruelly.

criminally, but Perry told me that the DA's office has refused to prosecute him. Following the incident, he was seeking help to cope with the trauma of what he experienced, and he was trying to move on with his life. He never thought he would be charged with murder since he said he clearly acted in self-defense. But that all changed. He started to receive death threats over the incident, and he told me that the Army stationed him in Alaska to protect his safety. At

At the same time, Perry said Garza was campaigning for DA on getting justice for Foster. Garza was elected and then secured an indictment against Perry. At that time, Perry's defense said that the indictment was politically motivated and unusual since they were unable to present a written presentation to the grand jury. I asked Perry how he was feeling going into the trial. Honestly, I felt like the justice system was going to work in my favor because I believe I did nothing wrong, you know?

But at the back of my mind, I believed that the DA was going to tip the scales and pick me out at a slight disadvantage. The trial was controversial. In one instance, a juror printed out outside research and then presented it to fellow jurors. The defense sought a new trial over that and other issues, but the judge agreed with prosecution that the jurors' actions were okay.

In another controversy, the lead investigator on the case, Brent Fugit, testified that Garza's office tampered with him as a witness. He said he was ordered to remove all exculpatory evidence that would have helped Perry. I had no idea that the jury instruction was going to be as complicated as they were going to be.

And I had no idea that there was jury members bringing in outside information to the trial to use it to change the mind of the other members of the jury. I also had no idea about the witness tampering. They also did not allow the police support in my trial, and they did not allow the lead detective to give his professional opinion about my case. Perry was convicted on April 8, 2023, for the murder of Foster, and he was later sentenced to 25 years behind bars.

I felt like I was betrayed by the American people, even though that's not really true. It was just to see Austin and that I was never going to see my parents again alive. I broke up with my fiance because I thought I was never going to see her again. I told her that I cannot provide her with the family that she deserved. She needed to move on and find somebody that can be her husband and help her raise a family. And that was the hardest thing I ever had to do.

After Perry was convicted, Governor Abbott announced that he would be asking the Texas Parole Board to review Perry's case, and if a recommendation was made, he would move swiftly to give Perry a full pardon. Abbott said, this is a quote, Perry spent 13 months behind bars before Abbott received the go-ahead from the board to grant that full pardon.

Texas AG Ken Paxton said that justice had prevailed in reaction to the pardon, and he said Soros-backed prosecutors like Jose Garza do not get to pick and choose the rights Americans have. Perry, who is Jewish, said that it was his faith in God that got him through.

I felt that God has answered my prayers. I don't know many prayers by heart, but I did the Shema three times a day. And then a few days later, I found out that, you know, the governor actually said that about me and actually brought me hope. I felt like I was blessed, to be honest.

Perry told me that Garza and the DA's office have taken actions against him that he feels are both politically motivated and personal. In one instance, Perry believes Garza's office was behind the push to get him a less-than-honorable discharge from the military. The district attorney got involved with my discharge process to ensure that I wouldn't get an honorable discharge.

I wish I still had a copy of my discharge packet. There was a letter with the official district attorney of Travis County letterhead on it.

stating that the government statements about me being innocent was just political and that I am in fact a convicted murderer. He won the conviction. He didn't have to take the extra steps to make sure that all my military benefits would be stripped away from me and sold my rank. So my unit, they tried their hardest to make sure that I would stay in, that there was a place for me to return. But the Army legal office got involved and took it out of their hands.

Court documents were also unsealed showing private messages on Perry's phone after Governor Abbott signaled that he was looking to issue a pardon. At the time, Perry's defense called that move a political decision by the district attorney.

Some of the private messages discussed guns and shooting protesters if they were to attack Perry. And other messages were racial in nature and, by Perry's own description, offensive. Perry says the messages were mostly between himself and his military buddies, some of whom are Black, and they were taken out of context. He also believes that releasing those messages was an act of retaliation. We don't see race in the military. We all agree the same. And we're all best friends, you know, and we see something funny.

Doesn't matter how bad it is. We share with each other. So if you ever were able to sit in a room for active duty soldiers and hear the conversations they have on the board,

A lot of people will be offended, except for the soldiers or veterans. We like dirty jokes in the military. We like offensive jokes in the military. As we noted at the top, Perry has not spoken to the media about the incident or the pardon until now. He told me that he's only speaking to The Daily Wire because he thinks Garza is unjustly prosecuting others for political reasons. Notably, Garza has indicted more than 20 Austin police officers for their actions during the violent 2020 BLM riots.

I am completely terrified and I'm worried that they might retaliate. That's because I'm talking to you guys. But if nobody speaks up against the injustice that he's bringing, nobody's going to hear my story. And more officers and more lawful abiding citizens will face his wrath. I'm not his only victim. Perry specifically brought up the prosecution of Austin police officer Christopher Taylor. Taylor was convicted of deadly conduct back in October, and that case is highly controversial, too.

He got three hung juries and then they didn't indict him a fourth time. So they decided to pursue another shooting he was involved in that happened a year prior with an armed man that was armed with a knife. And

Based on reports I've seen in the news, the jury's justification for the victim is five feet is plenty of distance for a police officer to de-escalate a situation of a guy going through a mental breakdown of a knife. And he should be getting sentenced in December.

Taylor's defense attorney said online that he's never seen a more clear-cut self-defense case involving an officer. And he posted during jury deliberations, and this is a quote, the jury must be improperly considering the other unproven allegations made by the same anti-police DA. Now, Perry is still facing one misdemeanor charge in connection to Foster's death, a deadly conduct charge that's punishable by up to one year behind bars, and a

But he closed our interview by telling me that he feels he has nothing to lose by speaking out about Garza. My reputation's already ruined. My career's already ruined. The only thing they could take away from me is maximum jail time. You know, worst comes to worst. But I don't think they could take any more away from me.

Perry's next hearing is scheduled for December. We'll certainly be watching that with interest. Meanwhile, Amanda, thank you so much for sitting down with Perry and bringing us this report. Yeah, of course. There's been a lot about the other side. It's good to hear from Perry himself. It certainly is. That was Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo interviewing Daniel Perry. And this has been a Sunday edition of Morning Wire.