The trial is tentatively slated to begin in January, now more than 200 miles away from Uvalde.
SAN ANTONIO — Two months after the attorney for an ex-Uvalde CISD officer charged in connection with the Robb Elementary School shooting response requested that his upcoming trial be moved to elsewhere in Texas, he got his wish: It will now be held in Nueces County, more than 200 miles away.
Nico LaHood, who is representing Adrian Gonzales in his criminal case, and presiding Judge Sid Harle confirmed the agreement for a change of venue. LaHood had filed the motion requesting the new location, saying he didn’t believe Gonzales could receive a fair trial in what’s expected to be highly visible court proceedings.
“It would be impossible to gather a jury that would not view the evidence through their own pain and grief,” LaHood said in August.
LaHood said the trial is tentatively slated to begin Jan. 5.
Gonzales was indicted on 29 counts of abandoning/endangering a child in June 2024 – more than two years after 19 students and two teachers were killed by a gunman at Robb Elementary – while former Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo was indicted on 10 counts. They represent the first and so far only criminal cases related to the tragedy that unfolded the morning of May 24, 2022, in the small South Texas community.
Gonzales failed to engage the assailant after hearing gunshots and being informed of the shooter’s general location, according to the indictment. He’s also accused of failing to follow active shooter training. Arredondo was widely criticized for his role in what has been considered a failed law enforcement response at Robb, where authorities waited over an hour to confront the shooter. The Texas Department of Public Safety said he was the incident commander at the scene and that he decided to treat the emergency as a “barricaded suspect” instead of an active hostage situation; Arredondo has said he didn’t think he was incident commander.
Arredondo was fired from his role as the district’s police chief in August 2022, amid mounting pressure from families of the victims calling for accountability.
Both men have pleaded not guilty, and Arredondo’s legal team mounted an unsuccessful motion to quash his indictment last year.
LaHood previously told KENS 5 his team has “not seen any evidence that would lead us to believe that Mr. Gonzales is guilty of these charges. All he did was show up and try to help those children.”
Uvalde gets new law firm, new school
The looming court case comes amid a wave of newly released records related to the Robb tragedy–some of which show Arredondo’s legal team sought a $1.1 million settlement when he was fired as well as disciplinary files for the gunman showing he failed state tests and had mounting school absences.
Also among the records released this summer was a letter sent to then-Uvalde CISD Superintendent Hal Harell by a Robb teacher who said she felt that staff at the elementary school at the heart of the tragedy were “being ignored” after the shooting.
The fresh records also came with some controversy when the law firm representing Uvalde CISD admitted it failed to properly release all the documents, saying it only shared a sample of what should have been made public. Less than a month later, the school board voted to hire new legal counsel.
Meanwhile, Legacy Elementary School – the district’s first new school in 40 years – will welcome its first students on Oct. 20 after a Friday ribbon-cutting ceremony capping three years of planning and construction.