Avalos had never put his hands on his wife Amber until he murdered her, jurors watched him tell detectives

Andres “Andy” Avalos Jr. said he had never put his hands on his wife, Amber Avalos, in their 16 years together. But on the morning of Dec. 4, 2014, when he did, by punching her, “That was it,” he calmly told homicide detectives during a recorded interview just after his arrest two days later.

Late Tuesday afternoon, jurors sat emotionless and captive for about an hour-and-a-half as they watched the recorded interview of Avalos confessing in detail.

Avalos saw fear in his wife’s eyes as he punched her at least two or three times, he said in the interview on Dec. 6, 2014. Avalos then threw her on the floor of the laundry room, he said.

“It wasn’t the cheating, but it was who she crossed the line with,” Avalos told lead detectives Jeffrey Bliss and John Kenney of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.

Not only did he suspect her of having affairs with his former gang rivals, but also with the Rev. James “Tripp” Battle, the lead pastor at Bayshore Baptist Church.

When Kenney asked Avalos about the wire around her neck, he responded, “I just wanted to make sure.”

Avalos was still not sure if his wife was dead, so he said he went to get his gun. When he returned to the laundry room, he shot her, holding his hand up simulating the motion and bang of the pistol as he told detectives.

He did it just to be sure again, because he thought she might be playing dead when he returned. A window that appeared open made him first think she may have attempted to escape.

Avalos is charged with three counts of first-degree murder for the Dec. 4, 2014, deaths of his wife Amber Avalos, 33; neighbor Denise Potter, 46; and the Rev. James “Tripp” Battle III, 31.

If Avalos is convicted, the state will seek the death penalty. Avalos has not denied committing the murders, but he has mounted an insanity defense.

The couple’s youngest child, their then 4-year-old son, was still home playing video games while his mother was being murdered. The boy at one point asked for his mother, and Avalos said he told him “mommy was gone.”

Avalos said the 4-year-old only saw his mother’s feet, when he pushed open the door to the laundry room. It was as he was loading his son into the family’s gold Chevrolet Suburban that Potter showed up.

He told detectives he never had intentions of killing Potter — despite being unhappy with her because he thought she was selling his wife drugs.

But things changed when Potter came looking for Amber Avalos, because the two women were scheduled to go clean a house together.

“I knew she was going to call the cops and I wasn’t ready for the police to come yet,” Avalos said.

He followed Potter into the home, leaving his 4-year-old son in the family’s gold Chevrolet Suburban. Potter, failing to find Amber in the bedroom, was headed down the hallway toward the laundry room, Avalos said.

Avalos said he didn’t want Potter to see his dead wife, so he shot her in the hallway.

“I don’t know how many times I shot her,” he said.

Then Avalos took his son to the Happy Cubs Daycare, making sure to tell him he loved him on the way and becoming sad after saying goodbye to the boy, he said.

He then headed out east, making a stop to see his cousins to tell them what he had done and that he loved them, he said. Avalos didn’t know if his cousins had believed him, but they had given him some money.

He ended up leaving his vehicle at Walmart, knowing that soon enough law enforcement would be searching for it.

“After what I did, I just wanted to sit in the back seat of a cab and relax,” Avalos said.

When detectives asked him when he had formulated his plan to kill Battle, Avalos said, “Months,” and chuckled.

At one point he vomited just outside the taxi cab, he said because he had been drinking the night before. Avalos also admitted to using cocaine the day before the murders and taking a painkiller the morning of for his hangover.

The taxi dropped Avalos at a shopping center near Bayshore Baptist, and he read passages from his bible. He then waited, watching for Battle to arrive at the church, knowing that the pastor’s car was not there.

After some time, however, Avalos decided to go into the church office and speak with Battle’s wife. But first he made a phone call to his uncle, Lt. Joel Perez, with the sheriff’s office.

“I said hey, you need to go to my house, get your boys over there. There’s two people laying down over there,” Avalos said.

Avalos wanted to know why Battle’s wife didn’t believe him, after telling her in the past that their spouses were having an affair with one another. During that time, she called Battle, who said he was on his way to the church.

When he saw Battle walking up to the church, Avalos walked out, pulled out his gun and shot Battle multiple times. Battle, who first had greeted him, quickly shouted out as he shot him, he said.

“I could hear Joy screaming and crying inside, so I felt bad about that,” he said.

Avalos walked away from the church contemplating “doing more things” like stealing a car or “going out with you guys in a blazing glory,” he told the two detectives.

But he thought differently and slept in the small wooded area nearby, leaving the next day to buy Pringles, a soda and a beer — but said he decided against drinking the beer.

Avalos only became emotional when he spoke to his family, early during the recorded interview.

When he spoke to his mother, he asked her in Spanish if she had hired him an attorney but then quickly said, reverting to English, “It doesn’t matter, it’s game over.”

Avalos apologized to his mother and told her that he loved her and asked that she move on with her life.

Later he also spoke to his uncle, also offering apologies.

“I’m sorry for all this uncle. I love you,” Avalos said, and he began to get choked up as he said, “I am sorry I ruined your holiday.”

Avalos was arrested on Dec. 6, 2014, in the Pine Haven mobile home park, 6320 14th St. W., Bradenton, and on Tuesday morning the jury heard detailed accounts of Avalos’ final hours as a free man.

At about 1 p.m., Melissa and Jerry Hamilton were singing Christian hymns in preparation for a function at their church that evening. Melissa stood in the kitchen, and Jerry sat in the living room as he began to sing the popular Christian song, “I Can Only Imagine,” she recalled for the jury. Suddenly through the sliding glass door, she saw a man walk onto the wooden deck behind their mobile home.

“Can I help you?” she said to Avalos.

Avalos was crying, and said to her, “Can I come in and talk to you and your husband? I heard you and your husband singing.”

She said no, but told Avalos they would come out to talk to him. Her husband quickly went to put on a shirt, and the three sat at the table and chairs on the deck, she said.

“He said, ‘I don’t want to scare you but I’m the guy that killed those people,’ ” Melissa Hamilton said.

Melissa Hamilton said she panicked inside but didn’t let Avalos see that. Instead, she walked over to him and said, “I’m sorry and we’ll pray with you.”

They prayed with Avalos for more than two-and-a-half hours.

Melissa Hamilton had not recognized Avalos as the fugitive wanted for three slayings two days earlier, until he identified himself as the killer.

“When I saw him, I recognized him because of the tattoo on his neck,” Jerry Hamilton said.

The couple tried to convince him to turn himself in, she said. They even offered to take him to the sheriff’s office, but Avalos told them “that they would kill him for what he had done.”

But Avalos did intend to surrender eventually, according to Melissa Hamilton, and told the couple that when he was ready he would call his uncle, who was in law enforcement.

“I’m not afraid to die today,” Avalos told them, she said.

While he never detailed how he killed his wife and the two others, Avalos said he killed his wife and Battle because of her infidelity. Potter just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, he also told them.

Avalos showed remorse for his children, because he was leaving them without any parents. He also felt bad for ruining his family’s Christmas, Melissa Hamilton said.

Melissa Hamilton offered and gave Avalos leftover spaghetti and when he mentioned that it would be his last opportunity to have a beer, they offered him beer from a refrigerator on the deck. Avalos had one beer before the couple said they needed to get ready for church.

But instead they loaded into both their cars — not leaving one behind that Avalos could steal — and drove to the sheriff’s office. On the way, Melissa said she called 911.

The jury also heard from a taxi driver who drove Avalos around for more than two hours on Sept. 15, 2014, in an attempt to catch Amber cheating on him.

Dustin Woodard said he picked Avalos up at the Crowder Brother’s Ace Hardware on Manatee Avenue West, drove him to the Avalos’ home, Bayshore Baptist Church and later to the Bayshore Gardens neighborhood to search for Battle’s home, he testified. Avalos told the taxi driver his wife was cheating on him and called her on speaker phone, allowing the driver to hear the conversation during which he questioned her whereabouts.

Amber Avalos said she was shopping at Hobby Lobby on Cortez Road, according to the driver. Avalos showed Woodard a Bayshore Baptist flier and asked to go inside the store to search for Amber.

After coming back out of the store, Woodard said Avalos bought pizza for them both and they ate while waiting and watching the Avalos’ Suburban. It was at least 45 minutes before Amber Avalos was dropped off by a Chevrolet Impala, got into the SUV and drove away.

Assistant State Attorney Art Brown asked if the passenger looked like the photo Avalos had shown him on the Bayshore Baptist flier that featured his wife, and Woodard said it did. But when asked if the driver looked like man or woman, he wasn’t sure.

This story was originally published May 16, 2017 at 1:40 PM with the headline "Avalos had never put his hands on his wife Amber until he murdered her, jurors watched him tell detectives."