Judge in trial of former Uvalde school police officer denies defense motion for mistrial
Corpus Christi, Texas (CNN) — The judge overseeing the trial of a former Uvalde school district police officer rejected a defense motion to declare a mistrial on Wednesday afternoon.
Judge Sid Harle ruled the prosecution had not intentionally withheld material mentioned by a witness during the first day of trial.
Former Robb Elementary School teacher Stephanie Hale will continue to be cross-examined on Thursday, after which Harle will decide whether her entire testimony should be struck from the record and the jury instructed to disregard it.
Attorney Jason Goss, who is defending Adrian Gonzales — the former school police officer who has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of child endangerment or abandonment related to the Uvalde school massacre — insisted the defense case had been harmed by Hale’s testimony indicating where she remembered seeing the gunman.
The defense hopes to present a detailed timeline of events and argued this new information could have affected it.
“This situation did have a significant effect on the strategy from voir dire all the way through and through future witnesses, should they be called,” Goss told Harle. “We have to ask the court for a mistrial.”
Harle explained his reasons for denying the motion. “It was not intentional by the district attorney’s office. It was negligent, and I don’t believe what was testified to in front of the jury resonated enough to significantly affect your trial strategy,” the judge said.
The turmoil over Hale’s testimony on Tuesday, the first day of trial, disheartened some families still hoping for answers and accountability more than three years later, a relative said.
Jesse Rizo, whose niece Jackie Cazares was among the victims, said it was hard for his family and other relatives to stay positive.
“They have a glimpse of hope, and that hope is accountability. That hope is that the district attorney’s team does a good job of presenting the case and laying out the case for a conviction,” he told reporters outside the court.
“But when you see a hiccup, and that’s putting it very mildly, a hiccup — when you see that, God, it’s so disappointing.”
His brother, Manuel Rizo, was more direct. “Their (defense) team is incompetent.”
Here’s what happened on the first day of trial, leading up to the heated exchanges between prosecution and defense lawyers that prompted the judge to cancel testimony Wednesday.
A teacher testifies
Stephanie Hale was the fourth witness to testify Tuesday. The jury of seven women and five men in Corpus Christi, Texas, had already heard from a funeral home employee who said he was shot at by a man exiting a crashed truck, as well as two Texas Rangers who responded to Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 24, 2022, when two teachers and 19 children were killed.
Prosecutors opened the day by alleging Gonzales, an officer with the school district police force, failed to locate, engage or delay the gunman when he arrived at the school.
Gonzales’ defense team argued they would show, through a detailed timeline, he did the best he could and that the deaths and injuries were solely the fault of the shooter.
Hale took the stand to talk about her experiences as a third-grade teacher at Robb Elementary school that day, when awards were being handed out near the end of the school year.
She testified she had taken her students outside for extra recess when she heard strange noises — first a crashing sound, like a dumpster being picked up and emptied, then pops that sounded like fireworks. A coach radioed, yelling for everyone to get inside, she said. Realizing something was wrong, she urged the children to go inside.
“And then, as we were all running into the classroom, I saw the — I don’t know what to call him — horrible person walking …” her voice trailed off as she became emotional and took time to compose herself.
Hale described harrowing minutes inside the classroom as she army-crawled under tiny desks to reach upset students and calm them with breathing exercises. She and another teacher agreed to use scissors to defend themselves if necessary. Later, she saw many of the children had armed themselves with their own safety scissors, apparently copying their teachers.
Prosecutor Bill Turner then directed her to a placard showing the layout of Robb Elementary, asking Hale to indicate to the jury where she had been when the alarm was raised.
She testified children were playing near an open-air pavilion and that she may have seen puffs of dirt indicating shots were being fired in that area. “I thought so, yes,” she said. Turner then asked if she saw anyone while seeking shelter in a classroom.
“On the way to the classroom, I saw a person in all black and a long weapon,” she testified, indicating where he had been.
“It looked like he was at this — there’s an entrance, a door right there, I thought he was more on the sidewalk.”
That detail would prove crucial.
A defense surprised
Goss, the defense lawyer representing Gonzales, asked Hale about an interview she had with investigators four days after the attack, conducted in the school building next to where she was hiding with students.
“During that interview, you described going into the classroom and you described the scissors, as you described for us today. But during that interview, four days after this happened, you never told Ranger Benson that you had seen anybody matching the description of wearing all black and long hair,” he said.
“I don’t know, I don’t remember,” Hale replied.
Goss followed up with questions about the person she saw. “That would be a fact — when you’re talking to the Ranger — that you would think would be definitely relevant and important,” he said, and Hale agreed. “I’m not trying to get on you, but that’s why I said the reason I have to ask these questions is, because I think the prosecution will agree with me, the things you’re testifying to here today are not the things that you said to the Ranger at the time.”
He pointed out what he called inconsistencies with her statement. The judge then agreed to allow time to review the statement and sent the jury out of the room.
Attacking the prosecution
With the jury out of the room, Goss raised the ante.
“We have never gotten any notice from the prosecution,” he said. “And that is clearly, clearly an inconsistent statement with the statement that she did.”
He referred to court precedents requiring prosecutors to share all evidence with the defense to ensure a fair trial, including the ability to question witnesses and, if necessary, challenge their credibility.
“If this is the first time that I’m hearing of this — in a trial of this magnitude — is when she testified on the stand, and if she did report these things to the prosecution, we were entitled to that, to prepare for this. And this is a trial by ambush.”
The lawyers agreed that some of Hale’s testimony to the grand jury that indicted Gonzales matched what she said in court. But Goss insisted her description of the gunman’s specific location was new.
“It’s insanely different,” he told the judge. “It is 180 degrees different than her prior testimony to the grand jury and her prior statement to the Ranger. And it is of a matter of such importance because it placed the gunman on the south side. It’s the same place where my client was, where he responded to, and where he went to.”
In his opening statement, Goss told jurors the defense would make its case by breaking down exactly what happened.
“We’re gonna talk about what Adrian knew — what was happening, second by second — so that you can understand that, we’re right, we know that Adrian never, never was able to confront the gunman,” he said.
In arguments outside the presence of the jury, he said they needed to know “at what time, when and where and how, and what teachers had identified a shooter or had seen a shooter on campus.”
The judge weighed in. “Location is pretty important,” he told the prosecutor. “Do we have anything that you show in your notes you turned that over to them?”
A district attorney testifies
Turner turned to his co-counsel, Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell, and asked if she had any notes regarding the teacher.
Judge Harle asked Hale to leave the room and then swore in Mitchell to testify.
It was an unusual event in an already high-profile trial. Gonzales is only the second law enforcement officer to be charged for his actions during a school massacre. Scot Peterson was acquitted of wrongdoing after staying outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, while a shooter killed 17 people and injured 17 others. It took Mitchell more than three years to indict Gonzales and former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo. Arredondo has pleaded not guilty to charges related to the 77-minute delay in stopping the gunman after he entered Robb Elementary. A trial date has not been set.
Mitchell said during trial preparations, Hale told her she saw a man in black with a long rifle but was not specific about his location.
Goss argued that this was information that should have been shared.
Mitchell said another person claiming to have seen the shooter had not stood out to her, and she had not heard any mention of being near the sidewalk until Hale’s testimony.
Goss continued to push: “At a time when you’re talking to a witness and — for the first time — they’re telling you that they saw the shooter, neither prosecutor or anyone in the room thought to ask her, ‘Where did you see the shooter?’ That wasn’t a question that came up in anybody’s mind to ask her where the shooter was?” he asked.
Mitchell pushed back. “You know, you’re getting very nitpicky,” she said. “Let me tell you something. When we were prepping these witnesses, I was running a law office and so I was in and out of interviews. So, I can’t say that she said that and I (was) like ‘Oh my god!’ It wasn’t that type of reaction for me. So, that’s the best I can say.”
After more back and forth, Mitchell said to Goss, “I don’t understand why it’s a surprise to you.”
Goss countered: “Because you didn’t report it when she told you that. That’s why. Because you didn’t turn it over.”
Mitchell said she had asked defense attorneys to her office to look through their files and then made everything available on an electronic portal.
An investigator with the district attorney’s office also said he did not recall Hale describing the shooter’s location during her interview, and no one followed up to ask about it.
‘Severe’ options
Goss then asked for a moment to confer with his client.
That caught the ears of seasoned court observers, as defense lawyers rarely need to discuss strategy with the defendant during a trial. The plan on how to deal with evidence and testimony is already well laid out before a jury is ever seated. Asking a judge to pause proceedings is reserved for serious matters — such as potentially requesting a mistrial.
That word did not come up in the Corpus Christi courtroom Tuesday, the location chosen after a defense request to move the trial out of Uvalde. Instead, there was discussion of the defense seeking “relief” or “remedies” — legal terms for possible repercussions for the prosecution.
Explaining his request for a moment with Gonzales to the judge, Goss said, “I want to know how he feels about it. There’s certain remedies that are severe.”
“There’s several remedies … that we can talk about, but yeah, talk to him,” the judge replied.
Gonzales and his defense team left the courtroom and returned a little over seven minutes later.
Harle excused the witness and the jury, instructing them to return at 9 a.m. local time on Thursday.
CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz and Matthew J. Friedman reported from Corpus Christi and Rachel Clarke wrote in Atlanta.
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