CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Following witness testimony Tuesday afternoon, a woman was escorted from the Nueces County Courtroom after an outburst during the trial of a former Uvalde school district police officer.
Shortly after presiding Judge Sid Harle excused Zavala County Sheriff’s deputy Joe Vasquez from the stand in the Adrian Gonzales trial, a woman was heard yelling in the courtroom gallery.
The woman referred to testimony that Rooms 111 and 112 were unlocked at the time a gunman shot and killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022.
The woman is Velma Duran, who is the sister of Irma Garcia. Garcia was one of the teachers killed.
“You know who went into the fatal funnel? My sister went into the fatal funnel,” Duran said. “Did she need a key? Why did you need a key? Wasn’t it (the door) locked?”
“Ma’am. Go ahead and have a seat,” Harle responded as law enforcement officers surrounded Duran.
“Y’all are saying she didn’t lock her door. She went into the fatal funnel,” Duran continued as she was removed from the courtroom gallery. “She did it.”
The fatal funnel concept in law enforcement is typically described as an open space where there is little to no cover for law enforcement officers to tactically move when engaging an armed suspect.
Harle said Duran has since been disqualified from returning to the courtroom gallery and also instructed jurors to “disregard” her outburst in court.
“That’s unfortunate,” Harle told the court after Duran was removed. “Very unfortunate.”
A livestream of Tuesday’s court proceedings can be found here.
Background
Adrian 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: