A federal jury heard a profanity-laced voicemail filled with threats to kill a San Antonio park ranger as the federal trial of a San Antonio man began Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Jason Pulliam seated a jury late Monday to hear the case involving Sergio R. Tapia, who was arrested July 26, 2023, on a charge of interstate communications with threat to injure. He was arrested after a park ranger at San Antonio Missions National Historic Park heard a voicemail message that was left on an office phone.

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The caller, who identified himself as Tapia, referenced an employee at Mission Concepcion and said “I just want to say his days are numbered.”

“I’m gonna (expletive) murder him, he’s (expletive) dead. I’m gonna shoot him in the (expletive) head, OK?” the caller said. “He’s a fat, he’s a bald (expletive) son of a (expletive), OK? I’m gonna (expletive) kill him.”

At the end of the call, the man said, “…Watch,” followed by a noise that sounded like a gun being cocked and fired without ammunition.

The caller identified himself by name multiple times throughout the message, prosecutors sad.

“There is no dispute the voicemail is real,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Kirk Mangels told the jury in his opening statement. He identified the focus of the voicemail as Chief Ranger Alex Heyer.

Mangels told the jury that Tapia has a history of interactions with law enforcement officers at the park, and said the park ranger who checked the messages at San Jose Visitor Center’s front desk phone recognized his voice, as did others who worked there.

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Mangels said the defense team would argue that Tapia has mental health issues, but told the jury that Tapia made clear in the voicemail “he knows who he is, where he is and what he wants to do. He knew what he was doing is wrong.”

Public defender Kurt Gene May, who along with Alfredo Villarreal is representing Tapia, told the panel in his opening statement that Tapia was going through a psychotic episode “when it was alleged he threatened to kill a park ranger.”

“Tapia is not guilty. Since childhood, he has been subjected to the effects of illegal drug use,” May told the panel.

He said Tapia lived in Ecuador with his mother and was brought back by a grandmother to live here and has had “numerous mental health issues, including psychosis.”

This article originally published at San Antonio man on trial, accused of threatening to kill park ranger.