CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The end of the first week of an ex-Uvalde school district police officer’s child endangerment trial provided another denied mistrial request, victims’ autopsy reports and harrowing testimony from a Robb Elementary School victim’s mother.
Jennifer Garcia, the mother of Eliahna Garcia, was called to the stand Friday afternoon. Her daughter, 9, was among the 19 children killed at the school.
“She wanted to come home,” Garcia told the court. “She asked if she could come home, but I told her, ‘No. Just stay in school.’ ... They were all going to pitch in for pizza and have, like, a fun day kind of thing. ... I told her I would pick her up later.”
Jurors are expected to return to the courtroom Monday morning for the fifth day of the Adrian Gonzales trial.
KSAT is livestreaming Day 5 of Gonzales’ trial from Corpus Christi in this article and on KSAT Plus.
Viewer discretion is advised. Details in this trial are expected to be graphic and difficult to hear.
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.
The timeline of events from Friday’s court proceedings in Corpus Christi can be found here.
Below is a timeline of Monday’s court proceedings from the Nueces County Courthouse.
9:03 a.m. - Jurors entered the courtroom.
9:04 a.m. - The prosecuted called Terry Snyder to the stand. Snyder is a Texas Ranger with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Bill Turner, a special prosecutor assigned by Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell to this case, began a line of questioning.
9:08 a.m. - As a part of the Texas Rangers’ crime scene team, Snyder said he was dispatched to Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 24, 2022. He told the court he arrived at the school at “around 5:30 that afternoon.”
9:09 a.m. - Snyder said he was assigned to help with “identifying and removing bodies from (Rooms) 111 and 112 (at Robb Elementary School).”
According to Snyder, investigators were able to identify the victims based on “clothing or what they were wearing or by the class roster that was within the classroom.”
9:10 a.m. - On the following day — May 25, 2022 — Snyder said he and another Texas Ranger were tasked with identifying “and mark cartridge cases that were in the hallways of the school.”
9:13 a.m. - Turner showed Snyder several photos from inside Robb Elementary School. He then asked Snyder if the photos were “fair and accurate representations of your work in the hallways of Robb Elementary.”
“Yes, sir. They are,” Snyder said.
9:19 a.m. - These photos were shown to the court. Per presiding Judge Sid Harle’s order, these photos were not shown on the livestream due to their graphic nature.
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: