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Caalarogus Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Reed Carter. Friday, January
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twenty third, twenty twenty six, Wednesday night in Corpus Christi, Texas,
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a jury deliberated for seven hours before acquitting former Uvaldi
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School police officer Adrian Gonzalez on all twenty nine counts
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of child endangerment. Gonzalez was among the first officers to
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respond to the rob elementary massacre that killed nineteen children
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and two teachers. Took seventy seven minutes before anyone mounted
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a counter assault. Mothers of the slain children wept outside
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the courthouse. Gonzales thanked God and his lawyers. When asked
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if he had anything to say to the victims' families,
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he said, no, not right now. Elizabeth Holmes, the Theronos
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founder who told the world she'd revolutionized blood testing when
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her machine never worked, is seeking a commutation from President Trump.
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She's currently serving an eleven year sentence in federal prison
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for defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions. Her victims
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included Rupert Murdoch and former Education Secretary Betsy de Vos.
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Now she wants Trump to set her free, and the
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Brendan Banfield O Pah Affair murder trial entered Day five.
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Defense began calling witnesses a battle of blood spatter experts.
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Body camera footage shows Banfield crying when told his wife
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was dead. The wife prosecutors say he stabbed to death
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after luring a stranger from a BDSM website to take
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the fall. I'm reed, Carter. Today, a cop walks free
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after Uvaldi, a con artist begs for mercy, and a
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love triangle murder trial gets more complicated. This is Celebrity Trials.
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May twenty fourth, twenty twenty two Rob Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas.
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Thirty three am Salvador Ramos, eighteen years old, crashed his
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grandmother's truck near the school. Armed with an AR fifteen
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style rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He walked
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toward the building, fired at witnesses, entered through an unlocked door,
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made his way to adjoining fourth grade classrooms, Room one
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hundred eleven and Room one hundred twelve, and for seventy
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seven minutes as children called nine one one begging for help,
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as teachers bled out on the floor, as parents screamed
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outside demanding someone do something, law enforcement stood in the
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hallway doing nothing. Three hundred seventy six officers responded to
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rob Elementary that day, federal, state, and local, the largest
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law enforcement response to a school shooting in American history,
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and they waited and waited while children died. Nineteen students killed,
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two teachers killed, the deadliest school shooting in Texas history.
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The investigatation revealed catastrophic failures at every level. Officers had rifles,
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had body armor, had training, had a duty, and they
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stood in that hallway while a gunman executed children in
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the classroom next door. Adrian Gonzalez was one of the
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first officers on scene. Fifty two years old, ten year
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police veteran with the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District. Two
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months before the shooting, Gonzalez had led an active shooter
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response training course taught other officers exactly what to do
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when a gunman targets a school. Prosecutors charged him with
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twenty nine counts of child abandonment or endangerment, nineteen for
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the children who died, ten for those who survived. Each
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count carried up to two years in prison. If convicted
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on all counts, Gonzales could have spent the rest of
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his life behind bars. This was historic, only the second
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time in American history that prosecutors sought to hold a
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law enforcement officer criminally accountable for their response to a
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mass shooting. The first was Scott Peterson, the Parkland deputy
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who stayed outside while seventeen people were murdered at Marjorie
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Stoneman Douglas High School. Peterson was acquitted in twenty twenty three.
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Gonzalez pleaded not guilty. His attorneys argued he was a scapegoat,
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that three hundred seventy six officers responded and only he
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was charged, that you can't pick one person and blame
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them for systemic failure. The trial was moved from Uvalde
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to Corpus Christi. Defense argued Gonzalez couldn't get a fair
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trial in a community so devastated by the massacre. Judge agreed.
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Two hundred miles away from the families who lost everything.
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For eleven days, the jury heard testimony teachers who survived,
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parents who didn't, officers who were there, experts who analyzed
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the timeline. Arnulfo Reyes, teacher in classroom one hundred eleven,
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testified about playing dead to survive while all of his
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students were killed around him. Elsa Avila, another teacher, described
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being shot and how her fourth grade students tried to
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come for her as she bled. A teaching aide testified
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she told Gonzales where the gunman was repeatedly urged him
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to intervene said the officer did nothing in those crucial moments.
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Prosecutors argued Gonzalez waited three and a half minutes before
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entering the school hallway, that the gunman fired one hundred
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seventeen rounds before Gonzalez made any attempt to engage, that
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despite his training, training he'd literally taught to others, he
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failed to act when it mattered most. We cannot continue
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to let children die in vain. Prosecutor Christina Mitchell told
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the jury, I want officers to know those days are over.
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When you hear the gunfire, you go to it, You
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stop the dying. You hold children above yourself. The defense
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painted a different picture. Attorney Nico LaHood told the jury
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Gonzalez was being singled out for a failure that involved
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nearly four hundred officers, that the timeline was disputed, that
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there was only one minute and forty eight seconds between
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Gonzalez arriving on scene and the gunmen entering the classrooms
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where victims died send a message to the government that
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it wasn't right to concentrate on Adrian Gonzalez. Lawhood told
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the jury, you can't pick and choose. Defense attorney Jason
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Goss argued that convicting Gonzalez would send the wrong message
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to law enforcement everywhere, that officers would hesitate to respond
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if they feared prosecution for imperfect decisions in chaotic situations.
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We can't have law enforcement feel that way, feel like
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if they don't make a perfect decision, they'll end up prosecuted.
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Goss said, there's nothing that's going to bring these children back.
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Body camera footage showed Gonzalez among the first group of
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officers to enter the shadowy, smoky hallway. Defense called it
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a hallway of death. Said Gonzalez risked his life while
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others stayed back. Said he helped evacuate children and called
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for swat response. Defense also pointed out the three officers
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on the other side of the school who saw the
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gunmen outside still in the parking lot before he entered.
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They had a clear shot, they didn't fire. Those officers
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weren't charged. The prosecution rested. Defense called witnesses, and then
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it went to the jury Wednesday evening. Seven hours and
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six minutes of deliberation, the verdict came back not guilty,
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all twenty nine counts unanimous. As the verdict was read,
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Gonzalez bowed his head. Several family members of victims started
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crying in the gallery. Gonzalez hugged his lawyers, shook hands,
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appeared to be tearing up himself. Outside the courthouse, mothers
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of the slain children, Sandra Torres, Veronica Luevanos Felicia Martinez,
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held each other and wept. At a press conference, Gonzales
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spoke publicly for the first time since the shooting. First
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things first, I want to start by thanking God for this,
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my family, my wife, and these guys right now here,
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he gestured to his legal team. He put them in
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my path, you know, and I'm just thankful for that.
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Thank you to the jury for considering all the evidence
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and making that verdict. A reporter asked if he had
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anything to say to the victims' families. No, not right now.
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His attorney, Nico Lehud, said they spoke with jurors afterward.
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They said there were a lot of gaps in the evidence.
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Some of it didn't make sense to them. They appreciated
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us bringing out those gaps. But Jesse Rizo, whose nine
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year old niece, Jacqueline Kazaries, was killed in the massacre,
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saw it differently. Now the message is clear. Rizo said,
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you're an officer. You don't have to do anything. You
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stand back and wait for the army, for the Marines.
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Everybody you show up. No one takes accountability. Make it
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make sense. A man charged with protecting children stood in
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the hallway while those children were murdered. A jury said
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that's not criminal, and now he walks free while families
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bury children who should be thirteen years old today. Former
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Uvaldi School's police chief Pete Aredondo, described as the incident
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commander that day, still faces charges ten counts of child endangerment.
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His trial has been delayed indefinitely by a federal lawsuit
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over border patrol agents who refuse to be interviewed. So
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the only officer to face trial walks free, and accountability
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for Uvalde remains as elusive as justice for those twenty
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one victims. Your tax dollars at work. We'll be right
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back with Elizabeth Holmes, the Thorano's founder who defrauded billionaires
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with fake blood testing technology, now begging President Trump to
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commute her eleven year sentence. Welcome back to celebrity trials,
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I'm Red Carter. Elizabeth Holmes wants out of prison. Disgraced
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Theronos founder, currently serving eleven years for defrauding investors, has
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filed a petition seeking a commutation from President Donald Trump.
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The Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney lists her
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request as pending, submitted last year, still under review. Let
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me tell you about Elizabeth Holmes and the company that
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made her a billionaire before it made her a convict.
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Holmes was born in nineteen eighty four Washington, d C.
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Daughter of a government aid worker and a Congressional Committee staffer.
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Grew up in d C. In Houston. Awkward child, few
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close friends, spent her time reading, designing inventions, and dreaming
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of changing the world. She enrolled at Stanford in two
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thousand and two Electrical and Chemical Engineering. Named a President's
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Scholar as a freshman, she persuaded a distinguished professor to
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hire her as the only undergraduate in his research lab.
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During a summer job in Singapore, home Umes worked on
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a computer chip designed to detect viruses. She became obsessed
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with developing better medical diagnostics. At nineteen, she dropped out
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of Stanford to launch her own company, Thernos, founded in
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two thousand and three, Holmes became CEO. The pitch was revolutionary,
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a medical device that could run hundreds of tests on
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just a few drops of blood from a fingerprick. No
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more big needles, no more vials, just a tiny sample
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and instant results. It was brilliant if it worked. The
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problem it never worked. Between two thousand and three and
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twenty fourteen, Homes grew theoanose through charm, secrecy, and relentless
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self promotion. She lowered her voice in meetings, wore black
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turtlenecks like Steve Jobs, cultivated an image as the next
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great visionary. The media ate it up. By twenty fourteen,
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Theranos was valued at nine billion dollars. Holmes was worth
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four point five billion dollars on paper. Forbes named her
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the youngest self made female billionaire in history. She graced
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magazine covers, gave ted talks, sat on corporate boards, rubbed
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elbows with Henry Kissinger and George Schultz. Walgreens partnered with
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Theronos to put the blood testing devices in thousands of pharmacies.
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The company claimed to offer tests for over two hundred conditions.
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Everyone believed her, except the technology never worked. The Edison
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Theronosi's proprietary testing device produced unreliable results. Most tests were
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actually run on traditional machines from other companies. The revolutionary
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fingerprick technology was a fraud. Patients received inaccurate results that
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could have led to misdiagnosis, wrong treatments, and real harm.
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In twenty fifteen, Wall Street Journal reporter John Kerrirew started digging.
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Whistleblowers came forward. Former employees revealed the company was cooking
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statistics and hiding the truth. Careru's investigation exposed that the
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Edison was used for only a fraction of tests and
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produced unreliable results. Everything collapsed. In twenty sixteen, federal regulators
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blocked thernos from operating its laboratory. In twenty eighteen, the
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SEC charged Holmes with fraud. She settled, paying five hundred
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thousand dollars and giving up her controlling shares, but that
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wasn't the end. June twenty eighteen, federal indictment wire fraud charges,
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Holmes stepped down as CEO Thernose dissolved. The trial began
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in August twenty twenty one. Holmes tried a defense that
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raised eyebrows. She claimed her former partner and COO, Sonny Balwani,
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had controlled and abused her throughout their relationship. Said she
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was a victim too. The jury wasn't buying all of it.
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January twenty twenty two, Holmes was convicted on four counts
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of defrauding investors, three counts of wire fraud, one count
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of conspiracy. She was acquitted on charges of defrauding patients.
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The jury deadlocked on other counts. November twenty twenty two,
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sentencing prosecutors called her crimes among the most substantial white
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collar offenses Silicon Valley or any other district has seen.
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The judge gave her more than eleven years. Holmes in
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Balwane were ordered to repay victims four hundred fifty two
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million dollars. The victim list reads like a who's who
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of wealth and power. Rupert Murdoch lost one hundred twenty
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five million dollars. Former Education Secretary Betsy de Vos was
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among the out of pocket investors. May twenty twenty three,
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Holmes reported to federal prison camp Brian in Texas. She's
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been there ever since. Her listed release date is March nineteenth,
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twenty thirty two. She's forty one years old, mother of
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two small children born after her conviction, and now she
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wants Trump to let her out. Here's the thing about
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Elizabeth Holmes. She never admitted guilt, never showed remorse. She
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continues to appeal her conviction from behind bars. Claims she
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was treated unfairly. Claims she believed in her technology even
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if it didn't work yet, but the evidence was overwhelming.
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She lied to investors, told them the technology worked when
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it didn't, showed them fake demonstrations, took their money based
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on false promises. That's fraud, plain and simple. A decade ago,
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Thronos was held up as an exemplar of American innovation.
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Joe Biden, then Vice President, toward the facility. Holmes was
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celebrated as a genius, a visionary proof that a woman
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could dominate Silicon Valley. It was all smoke and mirrors,
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an emperor with no clothes, and hundreds of millions of
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dollars stolen from people who believed her lies. Will Trump
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commute her sentence? The White House hasn't commented, but Trump
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has shown a willingness to pardon white collar criminals with
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connections Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, George Santos just got a commutation.
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Homes certainly fits the profile. Wealthy, connected, claims to be
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unfairly persecuted, the kind of person Trump tends to see
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as a victim of an over zealous justice system. But
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she's also a convicted fraudster who harmed patients with inaccurate
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medical tests and stole hundreds of millions from investors. Commuting