CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Jurors returned to the courtroom Thursday morning after attorneys for a former Uvalde school district police officer had their mistrial motion denied Wednesday.
Presiding Judge Sid Harle called Wednesday’s hearing without the presence of jurors after the defense team of ex-Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police officer Adrian Gonzales noted an inconsistency between former Robb Elementary School teacher Stephanie Hale’s testimony to the Texas Rangers four days after the shooting and the testimony provided in court Tuesday afternoon.
Due to his response to the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Gonzales has been accused and charged with endangering the lives of 29 children on May 24, 2022.
During a short Wednesday hearing, the defense asked Harle to declare a mistrial, which he denied.
Hale returned to the stand Thursday morning. After her testimony concluded, Harle then ruled for her testimony to be disregarded during a hearing without the presence of jurors or Hale.
The state’s next witness was former Robb Elementary School staffer Emilia “Amy” Franco Marin, who testified through tears at times in court.
Below is the timeline of events from Thursday’s proceedings from the Nueces County Courthouse.
9:07 a.m. - Jurors entered the courtroom.
9:08 a.m. - Adrian Gonzales’ co-defense attorney Jason Goss resumed cross-examination of former Robb Elementary School teacher Stephanie Hale.
9:09 a.m. - Goss played Hale’s interview with the Texas Rangers four days after the May 24, 2022, shooting before the court.
9:11 a.m. - During her interview with the Texas Rangers, Hale said she was walking with her students to a Robb Elementary School playground when she “heard a loud boom.”
“It sounded like a dumpster truck picking up trash. I get there very early, so I know that they do that in the morning,” Hale said, in part. “Looked around. Didn’t see anything.”
9:12 a.m. - When Hale and her students arrived at the playground, she told the Texas Rangers she “heard” what sounded like two “fireworks.” Hale, again, said she looked around and didn’t see anything.
“There was a coach leaving to, I guess, have lunch. I saw him turn around as well,” Hale said. “He has the campus radios. And I guess he heard something over the radio because I saw him pick it up, and he just started running towards the gate. At that time, I knew something was wrong, so I told my students, ‘Run. Let’s go. Let’s go.’”
Because she was far away from her own classroom, Hale told the Texas Rangers she and her students sought refuge in a second grade classroom.
9:13 a.m. - “We were in Ms. Rodriguez’s room. Room 19. That’s where we ended up,” Hale said, in part. “I only ended up with four of my students with me. The rest of them were in other classrooms.”
Hale told the investigators the teachers then secured the classroom. Ms. Rodriguez paused the movie her students were watching.
Rodriguez’s students began hiding under their desks. Hale’s students huddled with her in the back of the classroom.
9:14 a.m. - At the time, Hale told the Texas Rangers her husband is a volunteer firefighter in Uvalde. He began texting her updates from what he was hearing.
“He (Hale’s husband) has a radio, so he said, ‘Don’t go outside. There’s something serious happening,’ but he wouldn’t tell me what,” Hale said. “A few minutes later, he said, ‘There’s an active shooter. Don’t go outside. Don’t open the doors for anybody.’”
9:15 a.m. - Some of the second grade students began crying, according to Hale.
Hale started to coach them with “strategies” to “calm their crying so they weren’t making a lot of noise.”
Ms. Rodriguez also handed Hale, she said, a pair of scissors “to defend ourselves, if we needed to.”
9:16 a.m. - Hale told the Texas Rangers that she heard a knock on the classroom door, which went unanswered.
After a second knock on the door, they opened it. It was a “state trooper or Border Patrol (officer),” who escorted them to a parking lot.
9:18 a.m. - Hale told investigators she left the Robb Elementary School campus at approximately “12:21 p.m.”
9:20 a.m. - Hale shared the district’s lockdown protocols with the Texas Rangers.
“We make sure the door’s locked,” Hale said. “Cover the windows on the door. We huddle in some sort of secure area in the classroom.”
The Texas Rangers asked Hale if she knew of any doors at the school “to where the doors weren’t locking like they were needed to.”
“I know that there’s an ACE (Afterschool Program) room — and this lady just started. I don’t even know her name. There’s an ACE room in the fourth grade building that does not lock," Hale told investigators. “There were teachers in there last year that I knew, and it doesn’t lock. I’m not sure why, but it doesn’t.”
9:26 a.m. - Hale told investigators that the school’s classroom doors can only be locked from the outside “with a key” but not from the inside.
Hale’s May 28, 2022, interview with the Texas Rangers concluded playing before the court.
9:27 a.m. - Goss reminded Hale of some of her Tuesday testimony regarding the shooter’s description.
“When Mr. (Bill) Turner was here and he was questioning you, part of the things that you told the jury was that you saw a person dressed in black with long hair and a long rifle when you were out from the playground going into the room,” Goss said. “Is that right?”
“Yes,” Hale told Goss.
9:28 a.m. - “This person that you saw was on the south side area, I guess, on the sidewalk next to the south entrance?” Goss asked, while showing Hale a 3D map of the school.
“Closer to the parking lot,” Hale responded.
“This person that you saw you told Mr. Turner was on that south side?” Goss asked.
“Yes, and I was pointing (to that spot on the map) with the pointer,” Hale responded.
9:29 a.m. - Hale also agreed with Goss when Goss referred to her testimony about “dust (dirt) that was kicking up (clouding up)” on the playground.
9:31 a.m. - Hale agreed with Goss when he recalled her not mentioning the shooter’s description or the “dirt” on the playground in her interview with the Texas Rangers.
9:54 a.m. - Goss passed the witness.
Bill Turner, the special prosecutor appointed in the case, began a line of questioning.
9:55 a.m. - Turner showed a packet of grand jury testimony Hale gave about where “the shots were coming from.”
“Was that (information) provided to the defense?” Turner asked Hale.
“Yes,” Hale said.
She also agreed she was not asked about how the shooter was dressed during grand jury testimony.
9:58 a.m. - Turner passed the witness to Goss.
10:01 a.m. - Goss passed the witness to Turner.
10:02 a.m. - Turner passed the witness to Goss.
“‘I saw a shooter, and he was on the south side of the building,’” Goss paraphrased Hale. “That was never said to the grand jury or at any other time, except in December (2025), when you told the prosecutors, and they didn’t tell us?” Goss asked.
“Yeah,” Hale said.
Goss passed the witness. The state had no further questions.
10:03 a.m. - Presiding Judge Sid Harle briefly excused Hale from the stand. Harle also instituted a short break for jurors.
10:04 a.m. - A hearing began without the presence of the jury.
The defense team asked the court to strike Hale’s testimony in court.
“The court has denied the mistrial (Wednesday), but we do not believe that allowing the jury to consider her (Hale) testimony for any purpose, we believe, (won’t) affect the due process rights of the defendant (Gonzales),” Goss said.
10:05 a.m. - Turner offered a rebuttal.
10:06 a.m. - “We believe, No. 1, it has all been cured through cross-examination,” Turner told the court, in part. “Second of all, Your Honor, we believe that if the court does believe some kind of measure is appropriate, we ask the court not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. And that is: the only surprise that they’re (the defense) addressing is the ‘black hair and the gun.’ And it would be appropriate if the court feels like that caught them off guard and has affected their defense. Instruct the jury to not consider that portion of the testimony.”
10:07 a.m. - Goss said the issue is not about “black clothes.”
“It is the fact that she (Hale) said that she saw a man who matched the description of the shooter with a gun,” Goss said.
“And a gun,” Turner said.
“That’s the key issue,” Goss said. “It’s not his clothing, or the fact that he was wearing black.”
Harle interrupted Goss, saying that he “heard enough.”
10:08 a.m. - “I am, reluctantly, going to instruct the jury to disregard her (Hale) testimony in its entirety when they come back,” Harle said.
10:09 a.m. - Hale was called back into the courtroom.
“I just want to tell you you may hear, later on, that I will instruct the jury to disregard your testimony, but I want to emphasize to you: you did absolutely nothing wrong. It is not on you,” Harle told Hale. “I want to tell you, just from personal experience, memories of traumatic events change or differ or you recall more or less.
Harle shared his own traumatic story with Hale.
“I had a personal experience, many years ago, my wife and I were hit by a drunk driver. I spent two months in the hospital. Apparently, they almost lost me in the emergency room but revived me. And I remember that event very clearly: that truck coming at us and trying to get out of the way. But every time I think about it, it’s a little different. That’s because of stress and trauma. So, nothing about this is on you. We appreciate your bravery that day and we appreciate your testimony and being brave enough to come in here. You are excused with our thanks. Take care.”
10:22 a.m. - Jurors reentered the courtroom.
10:23 a.m. - Harle instructed jurors to disregard Hale’s testimony in its entirety.
10:24 a.m. - Harle sworn in the state’s first new witness of Thursday: Emilia “Amy” Franco Marin.
Marin was an ACE Afterschool Program Coordinator at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022.
Marin’s full video testimony, and a written summary of the testimony, are below.
Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell, who represented the prosecution, began a line of questioning.
10:26 a.m. - As of May 2022, Marin told Mitchell that she worked at the school for “a month.”
10:28 a.m. - Marin told the court what the district’s lockdown procedures were at the time.
“Because I am in a classroom, turn off the lights and lock my door,” Marin said.
10:29 a.m. - Marin said she arrived at the school at “approximately 7:30 in the morning,” which is earlier than usual, on May 24, 2022. Marin’s grandson, a second grade student who also attended Robb, had an “awards ceremony.”
The ceremony lasted until approximately “9:30 (in the morning),” Marin said.
After the ceremony, Marin said she began planning an end-of-year celebration for her ACE Afterschool Program students and their families.
10:30 a.m. - Marin began planning the celebration with another teacher at Robb.
The teacher was tasked with “purchasing food” and “snacks,” Marin said.
“He (the teacher) had a list of what snacks and food he was going to get,” Marin told the court. “So, we spoke about that, and then he left to the grocery store to go purchase the items.”
10:31 a.m. - Marin said she remained in her classroom while the teacher went to the grocery store.
“He (the teacher) texted me (around 11:20 a.m. on May 24, 2022) and said, ‘Hey, I’ve already got the groceries. Can you go and unlock the gate, so we can deliver everything through the back and not have to carry everything from the front?’” Marin recalled.
The “back” Marin referred to a gate located on the northwest side of the campus.
10:32 a.m. - Marin told the court about meeting the teacher at the gate with a cart to carry groceries.
She put the cart at a difficult-to-open door that leads outside. Marin also placed “the rock on the door” to hold it open.
10:33 a.m. - Mitchell asked Marin why she put a rock in between the door leading outside.
“So, I wouldn’t have to lock it and unlock it. Lock it and unlock it,” Marin said. “Because it’s always supposed to be locked.”
10:34 a.m. - Marin said she brought the cart out to the gate to carry the groceries when the teacher returned from the grocery store.
“I’m standing there (at the gate), and I hear a loud vehicle from behind me, which is the west side,” Marin said to Mitchell.
10:35 a.m. - Marin described a vehicle “going real fast” before it crashed “into the area of the ditch.”
The vehicle Marin described was the truck driven by the 18-year-old shooter.
10:36 a.m. - After Marin saw the crash, she closed the gate and ran inside the school to get her phone.
After retrieving her phone and dialing 911, Marin ran back outside.
“When I ran outside, I put the rock back on the door (to hold it open),” Marin said. “The (911) call went through, and I’m running to the scene of the crash. I’m telling the operator, ‘A truck crashed on the west side of Robb school. It crashed into a ditch.’ I kept saying that over and over because I knew they needed the location.”
10:37 a.m. - Mitchell asked Marin why she ran towards the crash.
Marin paused for a few moments before she answered.
“To help whoever had crashed,” Marin said as she became emotional. “As I’m running, I see — on the right side of me — two men running from the funeral home. They were running towards the crash.
10:38 a.m. - “And then, I see them stop,” Marin continued. “When they stop, I’m still running. And I see one of them falls as they turn around, and they run back. He (one of the men from the funeral home) yells, ‘He’s got a gun.’ And I turn around and start running back (to Robb), and I tell the operator, ‘He’s got a gun.’”
At the time, Marin said she did not see a weapon.
Marin said she ran back to the school’s difficult-to-open door and thought she kicked the rock away to close it.
10:39 a.m. - Marin told the 911 dispatcher that the shooter was wearing a “black hoodie (and that the shooter had) black hair.”
“He threw a gun, he threw a bag, he threw another gun (and) he jumped the fence,” Marin told the 911 dispatcher, in part. “He picks up what we threw, and he’s walking towards the campus.”
10:40 a.m. - Marin confirmed that the shooter began firing his weapon “towards the south area (of campus), where the children were at in the P.E. (physical education) area.”
10:46 a.m. - Marin’s 911 call was played for the court.
10:51 a.m. - The 911 call ended.
10:52 a.m. - Marin described what she did after the 911 call ended.
“I’m sorry,” Marin said through tears. “I had ran inside my room to go call the front office from my intercom. And then, I was going to run back out to make sure everybody was safe, but something stopped me. I looked at the door, I looked at the counter and I ran under the counter.
“When I ran under the counter, that’s when the call (with the Robb front office) hung up,” Marin said.
10:53 a.m. - Marin said she was in her classroom for approximately “40-45 minutes.”
10:54 a.m. - “The shots wouldn’t stop,” Marin told the court. “They were just going round after round. A round would go off, and then there was total silence. Then, another round and total silence. One of those times that it was silent, the A/C (air conditioner) kicked on. And I said, ‘Don’t turn on. I’m not going to hear him when he comes. Just wait.’
“And you just hear more shots. They were, like, nonstop,” Marin continued. “I thought, ‘He’s going to kill me. He’s going to kill me. He’s going to kill me. I’m going to die. I’m going to die.’”
10:55 a.m. - Marin discussed what her plan of attack would be if she was confronted with the shooter.
“I’m looking at the floor, and I’m thinking, ‘I’ll tackle him from his ankles, and knock him down with my shoulder,’” Marin told the court through tears. “And then I said, ‘Get up on the counter when he comes in. Jump on his back. Poke his eyes out. Take the gun away from him.’”
10:56 a.m. - Mitchell asked Marin how she could “explain that feeling (of that fear), just so we understand what that feeling is.”
“The feeling of that type of fear is something that only someone can understand who has been through a mass shooting,” Marin said. “You won’t understand if you haven’t experienced it. And I don’t wish it on anybody.”
10:57 a.m. - Mitchell asked Marin if it “was an ugly feeling.”
“It haunts me to this day,” Marin said.
Mitchell passed the witness to the defense. Nico LaHood, Gonzales’ lead defense attorney, began cross-examining Marin.
11:12 a.m. - LaHood passed the witness. The state had no further questions.
Marin was excused from the stand.
11:15 a.m. - Harle swore in the state’s next witness, Jose Lorenzo Hill, to the stand.
11:16 a.m. - Turner began a line of questioning.
11:17 a.m. - On May 24, 2022, Hill told the court he was “getting ready for work” at a home near the school when he heard noises.
“At first, I thought it was construction, but it kept going on for a while,” Hill said. “I just thought it might be gunshots.”
11:19 a.m. - From the second floor of his home, Hill said he retrieved his phone and began video recording “someone about to go into the school.”
Hill then sent the video to law enforcement.
11:20 a.m. - Turner passed the witness. LaHood began cross-examining Hill.
11:21 a.m. - LaHood asked Hill why he began recording.
“Because I can’t see very well, so I was, like, ‘Wait. Is someone actually going in there?’” Hill recalled. “’Is someone actually holding a firearm?’”
11:22 a.m. - LaHood passed the witness. The state had no further questions.
Hill was excused from the stand. Hill’s cellphone video was played before the court.
11:23 a.m. - Huy Nguyen, an FBI agent, was called to the stand.
Turner began a line of questioning.
11:33 a.m. - Nguyen shared how he became involved with the investigation into the Robb Elementary School shooting.
“I was actually in San Antonio, at the time, and I was the acting team leader for our team,” Nguyen said. “Got a phone call saying our assistance is being requested to go out to Uvalde to process a scene.”
Nguyen said he arrived at the school at approximately 2 p.m. on May 24, 2022.
11:34 a.m. - Nguyen and the FBI was asked to help the Texas Rangers with processing “the outside of the school.”
“Before we start anything, we take photographs of the general scene,” Nguyen said, in part. “We were looking for casings, right? We knew the general idea of what happened. So, our main focus was, ‘OK, let’s find the casings.’”
11:49 a.m. - Turner began showing photographs taken by the FBI of the scene.
11:57 a.m. - A photo indicated multiple shell casings found on the west side of campus.
12:18 p.m. - Turner passed the witness.
12:19 p.m. - Harle instituted a lunch break for jurors. Proceedings were expected to resume at approximately 1:45 p.m.
Jurors exited the courtroom.
1:47 p.m. - Jurors reentered the courtroom.
The defense, specifically co-defense attorney Gary Hillier, began cross-examining Nguyen.
2:34 p.m. - Hillier passed the witness. Turner began a line of questioning.
2:40 p.m. - Turner passed the witness. Hillier began questioning Nguyen again.
2:48 p.m. - Hillier passed the witness. Turner resumed questioning Nguyen.
2:53 p.m. - Turner passed the witness. Hillier resumed Nguyen again.
2:54 p.m. - Hillier passed the witness. The state had no further questions.
Nguyen was excused from the stand.
2:55 p.m. - The prosecution called Lynn Deming, a former fourth grade teacher at Robb Elementary School, to the stand.
Mitchell began a line of questioning.
2:58 p.m. - Deming described the school’s district lockdown procedures.
“Lock. Lights. Out of sight,” Deming told the court. “So, you lock your door. Be sure your door’s locked. You turn your lights off and cover your windows. And you hide.”
3 p.m. - Mitchell asked Deming about May 24, 2022.
3:01 p.m. - At “approximately 11:20 (a.m.),” Deming said she planned to take her students to recess 10 minutes early.
3:02 p.m. - Deming said she and her students were heading towards a playground for recess.
3:03 p.m. - Deming, who at the time had her foot on a door that led to the south side exterior of the school, recalled one of her students saying that a “coach is yelling.”
“And I said, ‘Why?’ And they (the student) said, ‘I don’t know,’” Deming said as she began to tear up. “I heard two, what sounded like, fireworks. And I told the kids, ‘Come back inside.’ My foot was still on the door. And I said, ‘Get in the classroom and hide.’”
3:04 p.m. - After closing her classroom’s blinds, Deming said she went to hide with her students when something crashed into windows.
3:05 p.m. - “Shots went through the window and a piece of shrapnel, or debris, or something hit me,” Deming said. “And I fell or jumped, I don’t know what I did. I lost my glasses, and then I was worried. ... I thought I put the kids in the worst place.”
Mitchell asked Deming what she meant by “worst place.”
“Because he was shooting through the window, and the kids were directly across,” Deming said. “I thought I made the worst mistake I had ever made.”
Deming then went to her students and asked them if they were OK.
3:06 p.m. - “One of my students said, ‘You were shot.’ And I said, ‘No, I’m fine. Are y’all OK?’” Deming recalled, in part. “I thought I needed to block them from the windows.”
Mitchell asked Deming if she knew she was shot. Deming’s students said they saw a hole in her shirt with blood on her.
“I think I was sort of in shock,” Deming said. “So, not necessarily.”
3:07 p.m. - Deming said she did not see the shooter outside the building.
3:09 p.m. - Because there was gunfire at her classroom window and she heard shooting in the hallway, Deming believed there may have been multiple shooters at the time.
“I was just telling them to pray. I told them I loved them,” Deming recalled telling her students as they hid. “I just kept saying, ‘Babies, I love you. Just pray. I love you.’ I wanted to tell them it would be OK, but I wasn’t sure. And I just wanted the last thing they heard was that somebody loved them. I think I said it a million times.”
3:10 p.m. - Deming shared with the court what she told family members while at the school.
“I messaged my husband, and I said, ‘Somebody’s shooting out the window,’” Deming said. “’I love you. I’m sorry. Tell the kids, ‘I’m sorry.’”
3:11 p.m. - Deming told the court how she and her students were rescued from the classroom.
“They asked, ‘Is anybody in here?’ One of my students said something, and I was scared because I didn’t know who it was,” Deming said, in part. “They kind of peeked around and said, ‘Is anybody in here?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’”
3:13 p.m. - Mitchell asked Deming what she thought about her students on that day.
“They are the strongest, bravest people on this Earth,” Deming said, in part. “This whole Earth. They were just so brave.”
Mitchell passed the witness. Goss began cross-examining Deming.
3:24 p.m. - Goss passed the witness. The state had no further questions.
Deming was excused from the stand.
The state called Nicole Ogburn to the stand.
3:26 p.m. - Mitchell began questioning Ogburn, who was a co-teacher with the district in May 2022.
3:27 p.m. - Ogburn said she taught in Room 102 at Robb.
3:34 p.m. - Ogburn heard a noise that, to her, sounded like “metal hitting the brick.”
“We assumed (with Ms. Alvarado in Room 102) it was some of our custodians out there working,” Ogburn said. “It wasn’t uncommon for us to hear noises of them outside working on something. I thought it was, maybe, a shovel or something hitting the bricks as they were digging up something. I didn’t know.”
3:35 p.m. - Ogburn told the court she went to a different window in the classroom and described what she saw.
“I saw a guy dressed in black,” Ogburn said. “He kind of had mid-length hair, and I saw a backpack and a gun pointed towards the playground and pavilion area.”
3:38 p.m. - Ogburn said the teachers did not have enough time to leave the classroom, so they decided to hide.
“I heard gunshots, and I felt stuff falling on me,” Ogburn said. “So, I literally, like, went onto the ground on my belly and started just crawling on my belly to get underneath the curtain with the kids.”
3:39 p.m. - One of the students, according to Ogburn, attempted to protect her.
“I was laying on my stomach, and he (the student) crawled onto my back and laid across me and rubbed my arm and told me, ‘Ms. Ogburn, it’s going to be OK,’” Ogburn told the court.
3:40 p.m. - Ogburn said she then called 911.
“I did that (call 911) twice, and my calls were dropped,” Ogburn said. “I think it was on my third try that it finally went through.”
3:42 p.m. - Ogburn’s 911 call played before the court.
3:43 p.m. - Ogburn told Mitchell how she and the rest of the class escaped.
“A law enforcement officer happened to come in and he was, like, ‘Is there anybody in here?’ And I don’t remember exactly what he said, but it had something to do with law enforcement,” Ogburn said, in part. “He asked me and Ms. Alvarado (and the students to), ‘Go out the window.’”
3:45 p.m. - Ogburn told the court she was the last person to leave the classroom.
Mitchell passed the witness. LaHood began cross-examining Ogburn.
3:58 p.m. - LaHood passed the witness. The defense had no additional questions.
Ogburn was excused from the stand.
3:59 p.m. - Harle instituted a short break for jurors. The jury exited the courtroom.
4:10 p.m. - Jurors reentered the courtroom.
The state called Kevin Wright, a Texas Ranger with the Texas Department of Safety, to the stand.
Turner began questioning Wright.
4:12 p.m. - Wright shared how he was called to the shooting at Robb Elementary School.
“My assignment (from Wright’s lieutenant), at that time, was to go to San Antonio from Boerne, pick up our crime scene trailer and drive to Uvalde,” Wright said.
4:13 p.m. - Wright arrived in Uvalde at approximately “five or six in the evening, a few hours after everything that happened.”
“The assignment that evening was to help identify the victims inside the school,” Wright said.
Wright said some of the victims’ parents shared photos of their children taken earlier in the day, which helped his unit identify the children.
4:29 p.m. - Several photos taken after the shooting were shown to the court. Some showed bullet holes pierced by gunfire.
4:49 p.m. - Harle concluded court proceedings for the day. Jurors exited the courtroom.
Friday’s court proceedings are expected to begin at 9 a.m.
Background
Gonzales, 52, is one of two now-former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police officers charged with child endangerment regarding the law enforcement response to the deadliest school shooting in Texas history. Gonzales is facing 29 child endangerment charges: 19 represent the children killed in the shooting, and the other 10 represent the children injured in the shooting.
An 18-year-old gunman also killed two teachers at the school on May 24, 2022.
The other officer, former Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo, has yet to go to trial in his child endangerment case. Arredondo is facing 10 child endangerment charges.
Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell is prosecuting the Gonzales case, but she appointed Bill Turner as special prosecutor. Turner was the former district attorney in Brazos County.
San Antonio-area attorney and former Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood leads Gonzales’ defense team. The team is rounded out by fellow attorneys Jason Goss and Gary Hillier.
In August 2025, Gonzales requested a venue change for the trial.
In the motion, Gonzales’ defense team argued that he cannot receive a fair trial by a jury in Uvalde County due to the impact the massacre had on members of the community.
“This horrific tragedy touched every member of the Uvalde community,” LaHood said at the time. “It would be impossible to gather a jury that would not view the evidence through their own pain and grief.”
In October 2025, LaHood confirmed to KSAT that the trial venue was changed from Uvalde County to Nueces County.
The state is expected to call approximately 60 witnesses to the stand. Court records indicate some of those asked to be witnesses include the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office, officers from other responding law enforcement agencies, medical personnel and some parents of school shooting victims.
Child endangerment charges are considered a state jail felony. Upon a potential conviction, Gonzales could be sentenced between six months and two years in a state jail.
Judge Sid Harle is the presiding judge in this case. If convicted, Gonzales also elected to have Harle determine his sentence instead of the jury.
More coverage of the Adrian Gonzales trial on KSAT: