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 returned to the courtroom Monday morning for the fifth day of the Adrian Gonzales trial.
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 in Corpus Christi.
9:03 a.m. – Jurors entered the courtroom.
Former Uvalde CISD police officer Adrian Gonzales sits in court during his child endangerment trial on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Corpus Christi. (Pool photo via KSAT)
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.”
Terry Snyder, a Texas Ranger with the Texas Department of Public Safety, testified in court during the trial of former Uvalde CISD police officer Adrian Gonzales on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Corpus Christi. (Pool photo via KSAT)
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. – Photos were shown to the court. Per presiding Judge Sid Harle’s order, some of these photos were not shown on the livestream due to their graphic nature.
9:25 a.m. – Other photos shown to the court included a shell casing and an unidentified law enforcement officer’s body-worn camera that fell off their gear.
Other photos shown to the court included an unidentified law enforcement officer’s body-worn camera that fell off their gear in the trial of ex-Uvalde CISD police officer Adrian Gonzales’ trial on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Corpus Christi. (Pool photo via KSAT)
9:34 a.m. – Photos of fired cartridge casings were shown to the court.
“And are these all belong(ing) to a rifle?” Turner asked Snyder.
“That’s correct. Yes,” Snyder said.
9:40 a.m. – Snyder said some casings recovered from the school belonged to law enforcement while others came from the shooter.
9:42 a.m. – Turner passed the witness. The defense, specifically Adrian Gonzales’ co-defense attorney Gary Hillier, began cross-examining Snyder.
The defense, specifically ex-Uvalde CISD police officer Adrian Gonzales’ co-defense attorney Gary Hillier, began cross-examining Terry Snyder with the Texas Rangers on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Corpus Christi. (Pool photo via KSAT)
9:50 a.m. – Hillier asked Snyder about “the west door” that was unlocked, the door through which the gunman entered the school.
“If that door had been locked, that might have changed things, right?” Hillier asked Snyder.
“Obviously. Yes,” Snyder answered.
9:58 a.m. – Hillier asked Snyder about a “fatal funnel” concept in law enforcement, which — according to Hillier — “an open space where there’s no cover and it’s difficult to tactically move.”
9:59 a.m. – “It’s an extremely dangerous situation for a law enforcement person, and all military, entering that fatal funnel?” Hiller asked.
“Sure,” Snyder said.
“And you’d agree with me that a fatal funnel could be an open doorway, right?” Hillier asked.
“Sure,” Snyder said.
“It could be a stairwell?” Hillier asked.
“Yes, sir,” Snyder said.
“But it could also be a corridor, a hallway, right?” Hillier asked.
“Yes, sir,” Snyder said.
10 a.m. – Under the premise of a hypothetical situation, Hillier asked Snyder if “anyone entering this (the school) is entering a fatal funnel?”
“Yes, sir,” Snyder said.
10:01 a.m. – Hillier passed the witness back to the prosecution. Turner resumed questioning Snyder.
“If you can’t see what you’re shooting at, as a police officer, you don’t shoot. Is that correct?” Turner asked.
“Correct,” Snyder said. “We are trained to identify our target.”
“Identify your target before you shoot?” Turner asked.
“Correct,” Snyder said.
“And so, if you hear shooting on a schoolground — but you can’t see where the shooting’s coming from — you don’t shoot?” Turner asked.
“Correct,” Snyder said.
“So, you just stand where you are?” Turner asked.
“Typically, I mean, through the information gathered, if we know where the shooter is — we have to identify our target is before we shoot. Yes,” Snyder said.
“And how do you identify where your target is?” Turner asked.
“You have to find where the shooting’s coming from,” Snyder said.
10:02 a.m. – Turner asked Snyder if finding where the shooting originated is something “you can just take your time to do or is it an immediate action.”
“You make a tactical approach to where the shooting’s occurred,” Snyder said.
Turner then asked Snyder if “time of the essence” in an active shooter situation.
“Absolutely,” Snyder said.
“That is: the longer the time in an active shooting, the more victims you can have?” Turner asked.
“Correct,” Snyder said.
“So, when an officer hears shooting but can’t see shooting, what does the officer do?” Turner asked.
“Runs to the shooting,” Snyder said. “Where we tactically approach to where the shooting is occurring.”
Special prosecutor Bill Turner (left) and Terry Snyder with the Texas Rangers (right) hold up a 3D overhead view of the neighborhood surrounding and including Robb Elementary School during the trial of ex-Uvalde CISD police officer Adrian Gonzales on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Corpus Christi. (Pool photo via KSAT)
10:05 a.m. – Turner asked Snyder, if called upon, if he would “go in” to face the danger of a potential active shooter situation.
“100%. Yes, sir,” Snyder said.
“But it’s dangerous,” Turner said.
“Yes, sir,” Snyder said.
“And you know that?” Turner asked.
“Yes, sir,” Snyder said.
“When you became a police officer, did you know you might be in dangerous situations?” Turner asked.
“Yes, sir,” Snyder said.
10:08 a.m. – Turner passed the witness. Hillier resumed cross-examining Snyder.
10:09 a.m. – Snyder told the court he was at the crime scene for “three days” before he was “rotated out.”
10:16 a.m. – The defense submitted photos to the court as evidence.
10:17 a.m. – The state had no objections to the photos, which meant the pictures became a part of the court record.
10:20 a.m. – Hillier began asking Snyder about “moving tactically” during an active shooter situation.
“You’re familiar with ‘slicing the pie’?” Hillier asked Snyder.
“Yes, sir,” Snyder said.
Hillier created a tactical scenario where “slicing the pie” would be a relevant tactic for a law enforcement officer in a sample photo from the school.
Ex-Uvalde CISD police officer Adrian Gonzales’ co-defense attorney Gary Hillier created a tactical scenario where “slicing the pie” would be a relevant tactic for a law enforcement officer in a sample photo from Robb Elementary School shown to the court on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Corpus Christi. (Pool photo via KSAT)
10:21 a.m. – “If someone were to hear the report of gunfire over here (in the area of the above photo), the correct way to approach it would be to take cover along this (brick) wall here. Right?” Hillier asked.
“Potentially one way,” Snyder said.
“One way?” Hillier said.
“You just can’t see what else is out here in this vacant lot,” Snyder said. “As far as any other potential concealment or cover to make a wider approach.”
“And we see a little thin tree there (in the above photo). That is a tree?” Hillier asked Snyder.
“Yes, sir,” Snyder said.
“But it’s not a substantial tree?” Hillier asked.
“Correct,” Snyder said.
“That would be possibly concealment?” Hillier asked.
“Potentially. Yes, sir,” Snyder said.
If confronted with a “long, barrel” weapon, Snyder agreed with Hillier that the “thin” tree would not be sufficient “cover” to shield a human body from such a weapon.
10:23 a.m. – “A person would come up on the corner, right? And just ‘slicing the pie.’ It’s like cutting slices off of a pie,” Hillier said to Snyder while imitating the act of holding a weapon. “That’s why it’s called ‘slicing a pie.’ Take a little bit off a pie, a little bit more, a little bit more. Until, eventually, you’re clearing a little bit at a time. So, you come here, and you can see what’s going on ahead of you. … As you’re going further, you cutting the slice off a pie to go further and further and further. Keep cutting the pie until, eventually, you can see down the other end of it. Right?”
“Correct,” Snyder said.
“That’s what ‘slicing the pie’ is,” Hillier said.
10:36 a.m. – Snyder told Hillier he was “not aware” that Gonzales entered the “fatal funnel” where the shooter was. Hillier also said one of Gonzales’ colleagues “was shot in the head.”
10:37 a.m. – Hillier passed the witness. Turner resumed questioning of Snyder.
10:38 a.m. – Turner passed the witness. The defense said it did not have any further questions for him.
Snyder was excused from the stand. Harle instituted a short break for jurors.
Jurors exited the courtroom.
Judge Sid Harle, who is presiding over the trial of ex-Uvalde CISD police officer Adrian Gonzales, sits in court on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Corpus Christi. (Pool photo via KSAT)
11:19 a.m. – Jurors reentered the courtroom. During the break, Harle said the state and the defense held a hearing without the jurors’ presence.
11:20 a.m. – At this time, it is unclear what was said during the hearing.
The state called Scott Swick, a Texas Ranger with the Texas Department of Public Safety, to the stand.
Turner began a line of questioning.
Scott Swick, a Texas Ranger with the Texas Department of Public Safety, was called to the stand in the trial of ex-Uvalde CISD police officer Adrian Gonzales on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Corpus Christi. (Pool photo via KSAT)
11:21 a.m. – After responding to the school, Swick said he was tasked with searching “Room 112.”
11:22 a.m. – Some photos, which were discussed by the state and defense outside the presence of the jury, were shown to the court.
Room 112 at Robb Elementary School is the highlighted portion (in yellow) of this map. The map was shown to the court on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Corpus Christi. (Pool photo via KSAT)
11:30 a.m. – Graphic photos Swick took of the scene were shown to the court. Per Harle’s order, some of these photos were not shown on the livestream due to their graphic nature.
11:37 a.m. – Swick said it appeared the gunman used “a new magazine that has unfired cartridges into it and then put it into battery or put a round into the chamber.”
“Did you find more than 30 casings in this room (Room 112)?” Turner asked Swick.
“Yes, sir,” Swick said.
11:38 a.m. – Swick believed a magazine had been changed for the gunman’s weapon while he was in the classroom.
11:58 a.m. – Harle instituted a lunch break for jurors. Proceedings are expected to resume at approximately 1:30 p.m.
1:34 p.m. – Jurors reentered the courtroom.
1:35 p.m. – Nico LaHood, Gonzales’ lead defense attorney, began cross-examining Swick.
LaHood asked Swick about specialty training among different law enforcement officers.
“Within the Texas Ranger division, we have certain Rangers that have gone on to additional and more advanced shooting reconstructions schools,” Swick said. “Me, myself, I’m one of the instructors for the blood-stained pattern analysis program. I’ve had additional training in that realm of things.
“We all have the same foundational training, if you will,” Swick continued. “And then, from there, go on to different things, if that’s what it calls for.”
1:36 p.m. – Swick told the court he has not responded to an active shooting situation while it was in progress.
Swick has, however, investigated “mass casualty” events before.
1:40 p.m. – LaHood and Swick discussed the “tactical way” for approaching a potential “fatal funnel” situation.
1:41 p.m. – LaHood pulled out an orange practice gun to perform a courtroom demonstration.
Nico LaHood (foreground), the lead defense attorney for former Uvalde CISD police officer Adrian Gonzales, presented a courtroom demonstration with an orange practice gun on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Corpus Christi. Jason Goss (left; first row) and Gonzales (right; first row) are sitting next to each other. (Pool photo via KSAT)
1:43 p.m. – “When you point the barrel at somebody (seen in the above photo) and that means that if the barrel’s pointed at somebody — even if your index (finger is on it) — at some point, it could go off,” LaHood said.
“Correct,” Swick said.
“And so, when you tactically enter a room or situation, you have to make sure that you’re safe — so you can engage the threat — but also make sure that other people are safe because I’m not going to go in sweeping people. Under pressure, there might be an accidental discharge.”
“Yes, sir,” Swick agreed.
1:45 p.m. – In another courtroom demonstration to describe the difference between “concealment” and “cover,” LaHood placed two large white poster boards on top of each other.
According to Swick, concealment refers to hiding oneself behind an object but “may not stop a projectile.” Covering refers to hiding oneself behind an object “that you would expect to potentially stop a projectile.”
LaHood hid behind the poster boards.
“Can you see me?” LaHood asked Swick.
“No,” Swick said.
“Am I covered or concealed?” LaHood asked Swick.
“You’re concealed in this circumstance,” Swick told the court.
In a courtroom demonstration to describe the difference between “concealment” and “cover,” ex-Uvalde CISD police officer Adrian Gonzales’ lead defense attorney Nico LaHood (right) placed two large white poster boards on top of each other on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Corpus Christi. Co-defense attorney Jason Goss (left) and Gonzales (next to Goss) are seen watching LaHood, who is holding an orange practice gun. (Pool photo via KSAT)
1:46 p.m. – LaHood, while in the middle of the above demonstration with the practice gun aimed, explained “slicing the pie.”
“You’re ‘slicing’ your visual,” LaHood said, in part, while walking slowly. “I see some of the jurors and I’m, little by little, ‘slicing’ this room. And you can’t see what I’m doing, but they (the jury) can see. And they can see, little by little, they see me as time goes on. So, I am ‘slicing the pie’ and checking for any threats, correct?”
“That’s correct,” Swick said.
4:40 p.m. – The state called former Robb Elementary School fourth grade teacher Arnulfo Reyes to the stand. At the request of the court, Reyes’ face was not shown on the trial’s livestream.
Turner began a line of questioning.
4:41 p.m. – Reyes said he taught in Room 111 at the school. The room was joined to Room 112 where fellow teachers Irma Garcia and Eva Mireles taught.
Garcia and Mireles were killed in the shooting.
Turner asked Reyes about how May 24, 2022 — the day of the Robb Elementary School shooting — started.
“It started like any other day,” Reyes said. “Just a normal day to go to school.”
4:42 p.m. – Reyes said his class was waiting to be called to the school’s cafeteria for a 10:30 a.m. “awards ceremony.”
“The awards ceremony is when kids get awards for special things they can do and achieve,” Reyes said. “We give them awards for special things.”
4:43 p.m. – After the awards ceremony, Reyes said he and his students returned to their classroom.
“After we got back to the classroom, we resumed doing what we were doing before we went to the ceremony,” Reyes said. “So, everybody went back to their spots, and we just resumed what we were doing.”
Reyes’ class was watching a movie with the lights “off,” which meant most of the desks were “gathered together in the middle of the classroom.”
“The kids were on the other side of that,” Reyes said. “They were watching the movie on the big TV that we have.”
4:44 p.m. – While his students watched the movie, Reyes said he was “entering grades into the computer” at his desk “in a corner” and “doing things that needed to be done before the year’s over.”
4:45 p.m. – Reyes said his desk was positioned “in a corner” near the entry to the doorway.
“I heard a noise, but it was kind of far,” Reyes said. “But it was still loud.”
“Did you recognize the noise?” Turner asked Reyes.
“No, I didn’t,” Reyes told the court. “It sounded like books when you bang them on the floor. That’s what it sounded like, but it was kind of far.”
Turner asked Reyes how many times he heard that specific sound.
“I would say, maybe, like, five, six times — around there,” Reyes said. “And as I heard it, it kept on getting closer and closer. But it still seemed distant anyways.”
4:46 p.m. – At that point, Reyes said he still couldn’t recognize the sound.
“I kept on going, doing my thing, and the kids kept on doing their thing,” Reyes said. “It was quiet. And then — as we were there — they started again: the loud sounds (were) more constant. They were just very close now.”
4:47 p.m. – As the noise neared, Turner asked Reyes if it “changed his mind about it (the sound) being books.”
“It took me awhile to process that,” Reyes said. “It did change my mind that it wasn’t books, but I didn’t know what it was still.”
Reyes told jurors that the sounds grew louder as he sat at his desk.
“For some reason, I looked at the wall that’s across from me — which would be facing Room 112,” Reyes said. “Then I saw pieces of the wall, or some objects, falling. Not too sure if it was sheetrock or what it was, but something was falling off the wall. At that same time, I had a student come and ask me, ‘What’s going on?’”
4:48 p.m. – “And what did you say?” Turner asked Reyes.
“I told her, I said, ‘I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going on,’” Reyes said. “And then I told my kids to go ahead and get under the table where we’ve always practiced to go when we’re on lockdown.”
4:49 p.m. – Reyes said his classroom has a “long table” where the children hid when they previously practiced going on lockdown.
Reyes got up from his desk and was going to hide himself from view.
“That is when I looked at my door, and that’s where I saw him,” Reyes said.
4:50 p.m. – ″What did you see?“ Turner asked Reyes.
“A black shadow,” Reyes said.
“What was the black shadow doing?” Turner asked Reyes.
“The black shadow was holding a gun,” Reyes said. “And I know that he was holding a gun because I just saw the fire come out of the gun.”
Reyes, who told the court he was standing when he saw the shooter, was first shot in his left arm.
5:25 p.m. – Harle concluded court proceedings for the day.
The jury is expected back in court at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
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:
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