Adrian Gonzales, a former Uvalde officer, remains on trial for his role in the Robb Elementary shooting response.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A motion for a mistrial has been denied by the judge in a criminal trial against a former Uvalde school officer over the 2022 Robb Elementary school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Uvalde CISD Officer Adrian Gonzales was indicted in 2024 on child endangerment and abandonment charges as part of an investigation into law enforcement failures during the police response. The gunman was inside the classroom with the children for 77 minutes before law enforcement breached the classroom door.
Gonzales is on trial this week in Corpus Christi, which is where the trial had been moved to from Uvalde County. Jury selection began Monday and a motion for mistrial was filed by the defense only one day later.
Questions over witness testimony
The controversy arose during Tuesday’s testimony from Stephanie Hale, a former Robb Elementary teacher, who described her actions to protect students as the gunman approached her building.
During her testimony, Hale said she saw a gunman dressed in black near the area of the school where Gonzales was positioned, meaning that the shooter was “in the line of site” of Gonzales. Defense attorneys said that statement was a surprise. They said it had not been disclosed prior to the trial and it directly conflicted with a statement Hale gave to Texas DPS four days after the shooting.
The prosecution responded that the statement was never formally documented and did not stand out at the time.
Defense attorneys Wednesday made the argument that the case could not proceed without addressing what they argue was a violation of legal disclosure obligations.
‘The Remedy’
Judge Sid Harle said the court has broad discretion in deciding whether a Brady violation has occurred, meaning whether significant information was not disclosed to attorneys before the trial began.
He said he believes the lack of disclosure was not intentional by the prosecution.
The judge said in order to prove a Brady violation has occurred, you must show it was intentional. He ultimately denied the motion for mistrial and offered to have her testimony excluded from the record and the jury notified as such.
After some discussion of whether to have the testimony stricken from the record entirely, all parties agreed to allow the former teacher to continue testifying Thursday. The defense will present the previous statement from the witness that appeared to contradict the Tuesday testimony.
Background on the case
The high-stakes trial, expected to last as long as three weeks, represents the first criminal court proceedings in connection with the 2022 shooting at Robb and its botched law enforcement response. Then-Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo is also charged with child abandonment/endangerment, but his trial date has not yet been set.
As testimony began, tissue boxes were brought to the families of victims. Some shook their heads as they listened to audio from the first 911 calls, but as they heard the voices become more frantic, the cries in the courtroom were inescapable.
The trial was moved to Corpus Christi after Gonzales’ attorneys argued he could not receive a fair trial in Uvalde.
Some families of the victims have voiced anger that more officers were not charged given that nearly 400 federal, state and local officers converged on the school soon after the attack.
Terrified students inside the classrooms called 911 and parents outside begged for intervention by officers, some of whom could hear shots being fired while they stood in a hallway.
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