Accused killer of child’s father testifies, case goes to jury

Jury deliberations got underway Tuesday afternoon in Oakland County Circuit Court for the case against a Pontiac woman charged with murdering her child’s father — an act she claims was in self-defense.

Solana Cervantes, 26, is charged with open murder and felony firearm for the Nov. 3, 2019 death of Rolando Rosario, Jr., 23, killed by a single gunshot to the abdomen. Rosario and Cervantes had one child in common, three years old at the time, who Rosario was caring for in Cervantes’ apartment several hours prior to the slaying while Cervantes was out for the evening with her on-again, off-again boyfriend and other friends. The shooting happened at around 3:40 a.m., not long after Cervantes returned home.

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While Cervantes never denied shooting Rosario, the question remained as to whether she did so because she feared for her own life.

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In a trial that began last week before Judge Kwame Rowe, assistant prosecutor Christopher George built his case on Cervantes’ changing her story during a series of interviews with Oakland County sheriff’s detectives — several who testified as to her claiming that Rosario assaulted her soon after she returned home and later denying that it had happened.

Among the other witnesses George called to the stand were medical professionals who said they examined Cervantes after the shooting and found no injuries, though a small bruise on her neck was noted.

Countering those claims, a registered nurse from HAVEN, Chantel Hammond, testified for the defense as to finding multiple signs and symptoms consistent with non-lethal strangulation when she examined Cervantes “head-to-toe” the day after the shooting. A female Oakland County sheriff’s detective was present during the physical exam.

Along with a bruise on Cervantes’ neck, Hammond said, she found bruising on her upper shoulder, upper thigh and inner part of her mouth, a scrape on her back, petechiae or red spotting in her eye, and linear marks on her neck that could be caused by strangulation or by a victim attempting to break an assailant’s grip. Photos of her finding were presented to the jury.

“Solana did illustrate signs and symptoms consistent with nonfatal strangulation,” Hammond said.

Defendant testifies

Cervantes chose to testify on her own behalf, giving a soft-spoken, detailed account of what she claims led up to the shooting. Rosario, she said, had threatened her life and “choked her out” in the past — including while she was pregnant — but it had been a couple years since he exhibited such behavior. Yet that behavior resurfaced just before the shooting, she said, when an argument between them turned violent, with them tussling and pulling each other’s hair. She ended up on the floor with him on top of her as the assault advanced, she said.

Rosario began choking her, Cervantes said, as she screamed for help.

Screengrab of livestream: Murder defendant Solana Cervantes testifies in Oakland County Circuit Court. (Aileen Wingblad/MediaNews Group)

“He kept choking me to the point I had no air left in my body,” Cervantes said, adding that she blacked out for a moment, then awoke to him punching her.

Their daughter was awakened by the fight, she said, and Rosario went to tend to her. Cervantes said she then retrieved her gun which she pointed at him to get him to leave the apartment. At that point, Cervantes said, he goaded her into shooting him.

As they moved into the living room, she said, Rosario kept walking toward her and didn’t stop when she told him to.

“I pointed the gun at him, yelling at him to stop…he kept walking toward me, and when he got close I shot him,” Cervantes testified. “I thought he was going to kill me…he kept pushing me…I just wanted him to stop. I knew if I got within his grasp, that was going to be it.”

Cervantes further testified that she changed her story during police interrogations because “the detective kept saying it didn’t happen…I just told him what he wanted to say. They didn’t want the truth anymore so I went along with what they wanted.”

Closing statements

In his closing statement, George attempted to discount Cervantes’ testimony, reminding jurors of testimony from Rosario’s girlfriend who said Cervantes was angry when she returned home and picked a fight with Rosario. The girlfriend testified that she was waiting outside for him while the two bickered, but that she heard no screams for help. After the shot was fired, the girlfriend said she ran inside and saw Rosario on the ground. Cervantes rendered no care to him as he lay dying, she said.

Two neighbors called to testify also denied hearing screams or calls for help, George added.

“(Cervantes) is the only one who has a reason to lie…who has a motive to tell you something that’s not true,” George said. “She had two years (since the shooting) to study all the reports, and comes in here with her best version of the events.”

Cervantes said she never reported past domestic violence out of “embarrassment,” but George claimed that was untrue.

“She indulged her anger. She was angry and she chose to act on it,” he said.

George also told jurors that the injuries described by Hammond were minor and “could have come from anywhere.”

Cervantes, he added, chose to introduce a gun into a situation where she had several other choices. And though she may regret shooting Rosario, that doesn’t excuse her actions, he said.

Screengrab of livestream: Judge Kwame Rowe gives jury einstructions Tuesday afternoon in Oakland County Circuit Court. (Aileen Wingblad/MediaNews Group)

In her closing statement, Loftin reminded jurors that just after the shooting, according to testimony, Cervantes told law enforcement and a paramedic on the scene that she had been assaulted and was hurting. Loftin also said Cervantes’ examination at McLaren Oakland Hospital following her arrest, to clear her for jail, was incomplete.

And, she said, Rosario’s behavior that night was completely out of character — fueled by cocaine and alcohol which, according to testimony, was detected in his blood at autopsy.

“It was a sudden and violent attack (on Cervantes),” Loftin said. “His thinking was completely clouded with substances.”

Loftin also told jurors that Cervantes had insisted to detectives that she’d been assaulted, but eventually was convinced that what she believed happened was untrue.

“She agreed with (detectives) because that’s what they wanted to hear. They misled her…the detectives didn’t have all the evidence…why didn’t they wait for the (HAVEN) report?”

The evidence, Loftin said, does show Cervantes shot Rosario, but there’s nothing to support first-degree murder, second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter charges — all which are to be considered by the jury. Jurors were also instructed in lawful self-defense.

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