CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Jurors on Wednesday night found a former Uvalde CISD police officer not guilty of child endangerment in his response to the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting.
Adrian Gonzales, 52, was acquitted on 29 child endangerment charges. Each charge represents the same number of children who were killed and injured in the shooting on May 24, 2022.
Watch the reading of Gonzales’ verdict in the below video player.
Child endangerment charges are considered a state jail felony. Upon a potential conviction, Gonzales could be sentenced to between six months and two years in a state jail.
Jurors took approximately seven hours, six minutes and 30 seconds to reach their verdict.
Judge Sid Harle was the presiding judge in this case.
After the state and defense rested their cases Tuesday, closing arguments in Gonzales’ trial began Wednesday morning.
In all, the prosecution called 36 witnesses to testify. Shortly after the state rested its case, the defense brought only two witnesses to the stand.
Harle told both sides Tuesday they were granted at least 90 minutes to make their closing arguments to the jury.
The closings arguments, which concluded at 12:09 p.m. Wednesday, took a combined two hours and 34 minutes to complete.
Background
Gonzales was 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.
An 18-year-old gunman killed two teachers at the school on May 24, 2022.
The other officer, former UCISD 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 prosecuted 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 led Gonzales’ defense team. The team was 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.
Witnesses included law enforcement officers, former educators at Robb Elementary, and shooting victims and their families.
More coverage of the Adrian Gonzales trial on KSAT: