Emotional scenes unfold at the courthouse as families of Robb Elementary victims express heartbreak after the verdict. \n<\/p>\n
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 A Nueces County jury found former Uvalde police officer Adrian Gonzalez not guilty on all 29 counts on Wednesday night, tied to his actions during the Robb Elementary School shooting.<\/p>\n
The jury reached its verdict after about seven hours of deliberations following closing arguments from both the prosecution and defense. The decision was announced in a tense courtroom by Judge Sid Harrell.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn each of the 29 counts, we, the jury, find the defendant Adrian Gonzalez not guilty,\u201d Harrell said.<\/p>\n
The verdict sparked emotional reactions on both sides of the courtroom. Families of the victims wept and held onto one another, while Gonzalez embraced his family and attorneys.<\/p>\n
Gonzalez, who did not testify during the trial, spoke publicly for the first time shortly after the verdict.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust picking up the pieces and moving forward,\u201d Gonzalez said. When asked if he had a message for the victims\u2019 families, he added, \u201cNo, not right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Family members of those killed at Robb Elementary expressed heartbreak and anger, saying they believe justice was not served.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe system failed the children, the teachers again,\u201d said Juanita Rizzo, who attended the trial throughout the proceedings. \u201cThey keep failing us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her sister, Julissa Rizzo, said accountability remains absent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were two monsters on May 24,\u201d Julissa Rizzo said. \u201cOne was the shooter, and the other was a monster that never went in and could have avoided this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The verdict comes nearly three years after the May 24, 2022, mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, which left 19 students and two teachers dead.<\/p>\n
Gonzalez\u2019s defense team said questions from jurors during deliberations pointed to gaps in the prosecution\u2019s case, which they say influenced the verdict.<\/p>\n
As the trial concluded at the Nueces County Courthouse, families of the victims said the outcome marked another painful chapter in their search for justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emotional scenes unfold at the courthouse as families of Robb Elementary victims express heartbreak after the verdict. CORPUS…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-133825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","10":"tag-corpus-christi-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}