Lufkin Police make arrest in connection with Monday murder

According to a report, Lufkin Police have arrested a 27-year-old man and charged him with murder after a 35-year-old man was found beaten to death early this morning.

Gilberto Perez is charged in the death of Wesley Tyrone Hawthorne, according to a media report from the Lufkin Police Department. Hawthorne was killed around 2:30 a.m. today in the 200 block of Patton Street, off Old Mill Road in northwest Lufkin. Both men had Diboll addresses, according to Lufkin Police Lt. David Young.

The Lufkin Daily News (LDN) reports that Lufkin Police said they found a man beaten to death early Monday in the 200 block of Patton Street, near where it intersects Old Mill Road in northwest Lufkin.

The LDN also reported police were called to a home in the 2100 block of Old Mill in reference to an assault victim who was unconscious, according to the report. Upon arrival, they found Hawthorne's body in a ditch on Patton Street. He was dead when officers arrived and appeared to have substantial bleeding and swelling on his face, the report stated.

Perez was found at a nearby family member's house where he had gone to seek help after the altercation with the victim, the report stated. Family members had called police and Perez attacked them for doing so, the police report stated. Two men restrained him until police arrived and took him into custody, the report stated.

Witness statements and blood evidence linked Perez to the murder, according to Lufkin police. He has been booked into the Angelina County Jail.

"We do know that Perez knew Hawthorne but the nature of their relationship is not clear at this point," Young stated in the media report. "It's believed that no weapon was used, only Perez' fists. The murder did apparently occur in the street at the ditch where Hawthorne's body was found."

Click on obits today for complete obiturary on Mr. Hawthorne.