"UVALDE COP WALKS FREE, THERANOS FRAUD BEGS TRUMP FOR FREEDOM & AU PAIR AFFAIR DEFENSE FIGHTS BACK"

0:03 Caalarogus Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Reed Carter. Friday, January twenty third, twenty twenty six, Wednesday night in Corpus Christi, Texas, a jury deliberated for seven hours before acquitting former Uvaldi School police officer Adrian Gonzalez on all twenty nine counts of child endangerment. Gonzalez was among the first officers to respond to the rob elementary massacre that killed nineteen children and two teachers. Took seventy seven minutes before anyone mounted a counter assault. Mothers of the slain children wept outside the courthouse. Gonzales thanked God and his lawyers. When asked if he had anything to say to the victims' families, he said, no, not right now. Elizabeth Holmes, the Theronos founder who told the world she'd revolutionized blood testing when her machine never worked, is seeking a commutation from President Trump.

1:03 She's currently serving an eleven year sentence in federal prison for defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions. Her victims included Rupert Murdoch and former Education Secretary Betsy de Vos. Now she wants Trump to set her free, and the Brendan Banfield O Pah Affair murder trial entered Day five. Defense began calling witnesses a battle of blood spatter experts. Body camera footage shows Banfield crying when told his wife was dead. The wife prosecutors say he stabbed to death after luring a stranger from a BDSM website to take the fall. I'm reed, Carter. Today, a cop walks free after Uvaldi, a con artist begs for mercy, and a love triangle murder trial gets more complicated. This is Celebrity Trials.

1:54 May twenty fourth, twenty twenty two Rob Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas. Thirty three am Salvador Ramos, eighteen years old, crashed his grandmother's truck near the school. Armed with an AR fifteen style rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He walked toward the building, fired at witnesses, entered through an unlocked door, made his way to adjoining fourth grade classrooms, Room one hundred eleven and Room one hundred twelve, and for seventy seven minutes as children called nine one one begging for help, as teachers bled out on the floor, as parents screamed outside demanding someone do something, law enforcement stood in the hallway doing nothing. Three hundred seventy six officers responded to rob Elementary that day, federal, state, and local, the largest law enforcement response to a school shooting in American history, and they waited and waited while children died. Nineteen students killed, two teachers killed, the deadliest school shooting in Texas history.

2:59 The investigatation revealed catastrophic failures at every level. Officers had rifles, had body armor, had training, had a duty, and they stood in that hallway while a gunman executed children in the classroom next door. Adrian Gonzalez was one of the first officers on scene. Fifty two years old, ten year police veteran with the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District. Two months before the shooting, Gonzalez had led an active shooter response training course taught other officers exactly what to do when a gunman targets a school. Prosecutors charged him with twenty nine counts of child abandonment or endangerment, nineteen for the children who died, ten for those who survived. Each count carried up to two years in prison. If convicted on all counts, Gonzales could have spent the rest of his life behind bars. This was historic, only the second time in American history that prosecutors sought to hold a law enforcement officer criminally accountable for their response to a mass shooting. The first was Scott Peterson, the Parkland deputy who stayed outside while seventeen people were murdered at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. Peterson was acquitted in twenty twenty three.

4:09 Gonzalez pleaded not guilty. His attorneys argued he was a scapegoat, that three hundred seventy six officers responded and only he was charged, that you can't pick one person and blame them for systemic failure. The trial was moved from Uvalde to Corpus Christi. Defense argued Gonzalez couldn't get a fair trial in a community so devastated by the massacre. Judge agreed. Two hundred miles away from the families who lost everything. For eleven days, the jury heard testimony teachers who survived, parents who didn't, officers who were there, experts who analyzed the timeline. Arnulfo Reyes, teacher in classroom one hundred eleven, testified about playing dead to survive while all of his students were killed around him. Elsa Avila, another teacher, described being shot and how her fourth grade students tried to come for her as she bled. A teaching aide testified she told Gonzales where the gunman was repeatedly urged him to intervene said the officer did nothing in those crucial moments.

5:13 Prosecutors argued Gonzalez waited three and a half minutes before entering the school hallway, that the gunman fired one hundred seventeen rounds before Gonzalez made any attempt to engage, that despite his training, training he'd literally taught to others, he failed to act when it mattered most. We cannot continue to let children die in vain. Prosecutor Christina Mitchell told the jury, I want officers to know those days are over. When you hear the gunfire, you go to it, You stop the dying. You hold children above yourself. The defense painted a different picture. Attorney Nico LaHood told the jury Gonzalez was being singled out for a failure that involved nearly four hundred officers, that the timeline was disputed, that there was only one minute and forty eight seconds between Gonzalez arriving on scene and the gunmen entering the classrooms where victims died send a message to the government that it wasn't right to concentrate on Adrian Gonzalez. Lawhood told the jury, you can't pick and choose. Defense attorney Jason Goss argued that convicting Gonzalez would send the wrong message to law enforcement everywhere, that officers would hesitate to respond if they feared prosecution for imperfect decisions in chaotic situations.

6:32 We can't have law enforcement feel that way, feel like if they don't make a perfect decision, they'll end up prosecuted. Goss said, there's nothing that's going to bring these children back. Body camera footage showed Gonzalez among the first group of officers to enter the shadowy, smoky hallway. Defense called it a hallway of death. Said Gonzalez risked his life while others stayed back. Said he helped evacuate children and called for swat response. Defense also pointed out the three officers on the other side of the school who saw the gunmen outside still in the parking lot before he entered. They had a clear shot, they didn't fire. Those officers weren't charged. The prosecution rested. Defense called witnesses, and then it went to the jury Wednesday evening. Seven hours and six minutes of deliberation, the verdict came back not guilty, all twenty nine counts unanimous. As the verdict was read, Gonzalez bowed his head. Several family members of victims started crying in the gallery. Gonzalez hugged his lawyers, shook hands, appeared to be tearing up himself. Outside the courthouse, mothers of the slain children, Sandra Torres, Veronica Luevanos Felicia Martinez, held each other and wept. At a press conference, Gonzales spoke publicly for the first time since the shooting. First things first, I want to start by thanking God for this, my family, my wife, and these guys right now here, he gestured to his legal team. He put them in

8:03 my path, you know, and I'm just thankful for that. Thank you to the jury for considering all the evidence and making that verdict. A reporter asked if he had anything to say to the victims' families. No, not right now. His attorney, Nico Lehud, said they spoke with jurors afterward. They said there were a lot of gaps in the evidence. Some of it didn't make sense to them. They appreciated us bringing out those gaps. But Jesse Rizo, whose nine year old niece, Jacqueline Kazaries, was killed in the massacre, saw it differently. Now the message is clear. Rizo said, you're an officer. You don't have to do anything. You stand back and wait for the army, for the Marines.

8:44 Everybody you show up. No one takes accountability. Make it make sense. A man charged with protecting children stood in the hallway while those children were murdered. A jury said that's not criminal, and now he walks free while families bury children who should be thirteen years old today. Former Uvaldi School's police chief Pete Aredondo, described as the incident commander that day, still faces charges ten counts of child endangerment. His trial has been delayed indefinitely by a federal lawsuit over border patrol agents who refuse to be interviewed. So the only officer to face trial walks free, and accountability for Uvalde remains as elusive as justice for those twenty one victims. Your tax dollars at work. We'll be right back with Elizabeth Holmes, the Thorano's founder who defrauded billionaires with fake blood testing technology, now begging President Trump to commute her eleven year sentence. Welcome back to celebrity trials, I'm Red Carter. Elizabeth Holmes wants out of prison. Disgraced Theronos founder, currently serving eleven years for defrauding investors, has filed a petition seeking a commutation from President Donald Trump.

10:10 The Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney lists her request as pending, submitted last year, still under review. Let me tell you about Elizabeth Holmes and the company that made her a billionaire before it made her a convict. Holmes was born in nineteen eighty four Washington, d C. Daughter of a government aid worker and a Congressional Committee staffer. Grew up in d C. In Houston. Awkward child, few close friends, spent her time reading, designing inventions, and dreaming of changing the world. She enrolled at Stanford in two thousand and two Electrical and Chemical Engineering. Named a President's Scholar as a freshman, she persuaded a distinguished professor to hire her as the only undergraduate in his research lab.

10:57 During a summer job in Singapore, home Umes worked on a computer chip designed to detect viruses. She became obsessed with developing better medical diagnostics. At nineteen, she dropped out of Stanford to launch her own company, Thernos, founded in two thousand and three, Holmes became CEO. The pitch was revolutionary, a medical device that could run hundreds of tests on just a few drops of blood from a fingerprick. No more big needles, no more vials, just a tiny sample and instant results. It was brilliant if it worked. The problem it never worked. Between two thousand and three and twenty fourteen, Homes grew theoanose through charm, secrecy, and relentless self promotion. She lowered her voice in meetings, wore black turtlenecks like Steve Jobs, cultivated an image as the next great visionary. The media ate it up. By twenty fourteen, Theranos was valued at nine billion dollars. Holmes was worth four point five billion dollars on paper. Forbes named her the youngest self made female billionaire in history. She graced magazine covers, gave ted talks, sat on corporate boards, rubbed elbows with Henry Kissinger and George Schultz. Walgreens partnered with Theronos to put the blood testing devices in thousands of pharmacies.

12:18 The company claimed to offer tests for over two hundred conditions. Everyone believed her, except the technology never worked. The Edison Theronosi's proprietary testing device produced unreliable results. Most tests were actually run on traditional machines from other companies. The revolutionary fingerprick technology was a fraud. Patients received inaccurate results that could have led to misdiagnosis, wrong treatments, and real harm. In twenty fifteen, Wall Street Journal reporter John Kerrirew started digging. Whistleblowers came forward. Former employees revealed the company was cooking statistics and hiding the truth. Careru's investigation exposed that the Edison was used for only a fraction of tests and produced unreliable results. Everything collapsed. In twenty sixteen, federal regulators blocked thernos from operating its laboratory. In twenty eighteen, the SEC charged Holmes with fraud. She settled, paying five hundred thousand dollars and giving up her controlling shares, but that wasn't the end. June twenty eighteen, federal indictment wire fraud charges, Holmes stepped down as CEO Thernose dissolved. The trial began in August twenty twenty one. Holmes tried a defense that raised eyebrows. She claimed her former partner and COO, Sonny Balwani, had controlled and abused her throughout their relationship. Said she

13:51 was a victim too. The jury wasn't buying all of it. January twenty twenty two, Holmes was convicted on four counts of defrauding investors, three counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy. She was acquitted on charges of defrauding patients. The jury deadlocked on other counts. November twenty twenty two, sentencing prosecutors called her crimes among the most substantial white collar offenses Silicon Valley or any other district has seen. The judge gave her more than eleven years. Holmes in Balwane were ordered to repay victims four hundred fifty two million dollars. The victim list reads like a who's who of wealth and power. Rupert Murdoch lost one hundred twenty five million dollars. Former Education Secretary Betsy de Vos was among the out of pocket investors. May twenty twenty three, Holmes reported to federal prison camp Brian in Texas. She's been there ever since. Her listed release date is March nineteenth, twenty thirty two. She's forty one years old, mother of two small children born after her conviction, and now she wants Trump to let her out. Here's the thing about Elizabeth Holmes. She never admitted guilt, never showed remorse. She continues to appeal her conviction from behind bars. Claims she was treated unfairly. Claims she believed in her technology even if it didn't work yet, but the evidence was overwhelming.

15:20 She lied to investors, told them the technology worked when it didn't, showed them fake demonstrations, took their money based on false promises. That's fraud, plain and simple. A decade ago, Thronos was held up as an exemplar of American innovation. Joe Biden, then Vice President, toward the facility. Holmes was celebrated as a genius, a visionary proof that a woman could dominate Silicon Valley. It was all smoke and mirrors, an emperor with no clothes, and hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from people who believed her lies. Will Trump commute her sentence? The White House hasn't commented, but Trump has shown a willingness to pardon white collar criminals with connections Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, George Santos just got a commutation.

16:08 Homes certainly fits the profile. Wealthy, connected, claims to be unfairly persecuted, the kind of person Trump tends to see as a victim of an over zealous justice system. But she's also a convicted fraudster who harmed patients with inaccurate medical tests and stole hundreds of millions from investors. Commuting her sentence would tell every con artist in America that if you're rich enough and well connected enough, consequences don't apply to you. Elizabeth Holmes revolutionize nothing except the art of the Cohn. She should serve every day of her sentence. Make it make sense. Coming up, day five of the Brendan Banfield ou Pair affair murder trial, defense begins calling witnesses, challenges blood evidence, and shows body camera footage of the defendant crying when he learned his wife was dead. The wife prosecutors say he stabbed to death himself. Welcome back to celebrity trials. I'm reed. Carter, Fairfax County, Virginia. The Brendan Banfield double murder trial, Day five and the defense is fighting back. Let me catch you up on this twisted case. February twenty fourth, twenty twenty three, eight am police respond to a home on stable Brook Way in Herndon, Virginia, affluent suburb of Washington, d C. Inside, they find Christine Banfield, a nurse, nude and stabbed multiple times in the master bedroom. Nearby,

17:41 a man named Joseph Ryan shot multiple times. Brendan Banfield, forty years old. IRS special agent tells police he shot Ryan because Ryan was stabbing his wife. Hero husband defends family from intruder. Case closed, except it wasn't. Investigators started digging found that Brendan had been having an affair with the family's twenty two year old Brazilian au pair, Juliana Perez. Magalies found that someone had created a profile for Christine on fet Life, a sexual fetish website, and used it to lure Joseph Ryan to the house. Ryan thought he was arriving for consensual role play. Instructions from the fake account, the door will be unlocked, she'll be asleep, bring a knife, zip ties, chains, don't stop even if she calls for help.

18:30 Ryan was the patsy, the fall guy, the stranger who would take the blame for Christine's murder, while Brendan walked away free to be with his O pair girlfriend. October twenty twenty three, police arrested Magalhies for shooting Ryan. September twenty twenty four, they arrested Brendan Banfield for murdering both his wife and Ryan. Maggle Hys pleaded guilty to manslaughter in exchange for testifying against Banfield. She took the stand last week spent two days describing how bad Banfield planned the murders. How they created the fake fet life account on Christine's laptop while she was home so her phone would ping at the location, How they practiced at a shooting range, how Banfield had soundproof windows installed months before, how he gave her a gun the morning of the killings.

19:18 She testified that when Ryan arrived and was on top of Christine, Banfield burst in yelling. Police officer shot Ryan. Then, while Maglhanyes watched, stabbed his wife in the neck with the knife Ryan had brought. Then, she said, Banfield dripped Christine's blood onto Ryan's body make it look like Ryan killed Christine before Brendan heroically stopped him. The prosecution rested Tuesday, called their final witness, a blood spatter expert, who said the blood patterns suggested the crime scene had been manipulated, that Ryan's body had been moved, that blood was deliberately placed on him. Wednesday, day five, the defense began its case, and they came out swinging. Defense attorney John Carroll filed a motion to dismiss the entire trial, called it tainted, argued the prosecution's evidence was full of gaps, that their star witness, the au Pair, was unreliable, that she changed her story, that she was only cooperating to save herself.

20:19 We don't have any sense of what happened on that day, even in the light most favorable to the commonwealth, Carol told the judge. The judge denied the motion. Trial continues. Defense called Fairfax County police officers who responded to the scene. Played body camera footage showing Brendan Banfield at the hospital waiting to hear about Christine and then the moment he learned she was dead. Brendan Banfield on camera breaking down crying devastated. Banfield wiped his eyes watching the footage in court, His family members and Christine's family both teared up. This was the defense's key moment, showing the jury a man who loved his wife and destroyed by her death, not a cold blooded killer who orchestrated her murder. Then the defense called their own blood spatter expert Lee Ann Singly.

21:10 She challenged the prosecution's theory. Looked at the blood on Ryan's forearm, blood the prosecution said Banfield deliberately dripped there. Singly testified she couldn't determine how it got there. The hair on the skin made analysis impossible. Under cross examination, she admitted she couldn't rule out that the blood was intentionally placed, but she couldn't confirm it either. The defense's theory Christine Banfield was actually using the fet life account herself. That it wasn't Banfield catfishing Ryan, it was Christine engaging in her own sexual fantasies. That Ryan really did attack Christine, That Banfield really did walk in on an assault in progress and shot Ryan to save his wife. That the stabbing happened in the chaos of the moment. Defense says they'll present digital forensics proving Christine the one communicating with Ryan that the lead homicide detective and forensic detective both disagreed with the prosecution's catfishing theory. But here's what the defense has to explain. Why did maggal Hines plead guilty to manslaughter and testify against Banfield. She could have fought the charges, could have maintained the original story that they walked in on Ryan attacking Christine. Instead, she confessed to being part of a murder plot. Prosecutors showed that after the killings, Banfield moved Mogglhis's clothes into the master bedroom.

22:34 A framed photo of the two of them appeared on the nightstand. The oupair replaced the wife before Christine's body was even cold. The trial is expected to last several more weeks. Defense says they'll call three to five witnesses, digital forensics, more blood experts, maybe character witnesses. Banfield faces four counts of aggravated murder, firearms charges, and child abuse charges because his four year old daughter was in the house during the killings. If convicted, he faces life in prison. Christine Banfield was an ICU nurse, mother wife stabbed to death in her own bed while her daughter was downstairs. She should be coming home from her shift right now, should be having dinner with her family, should be alive.

23:17 Someone has to say her name. That's Celebrity Trials for Friday, January twenty third, twenty twenty six. Adrian Gonzales acquitted on all twenty nine counts in Uvalde. The former school police officer walks free while families of slain children weep outside the courthouse. When asked if he had anything to say to victim's families, No, not right now. Elizabeth Holmes wants Trump to commute her eleven year sentence for defrauding Theronos investors out of hundreds of millions. The technology never worked, the patients were harmed, and now she wants mercy. Brendan Banfield's defense is fighting back in the O pair a fair murder trial. Blood experts disagreeing, bodycam showing the defense didant crying the question loving husband who lost his wife or mastermind who orchestrated her murder? I'm Red Carter. This is Celebrity Trials.