"UVALDE COP'S FATE IN JURY'S HANDS, AU PAIR MURDER DEFENSE BEGINS & WEST WING STAR WALKS FREE"

0:03 Caalaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Reed Carter, Thursday, January twenty second, twenty twenty six. Three major stories today. Let me tell you where we are Texas. The Uvaldi trial went to the jury yesterday. Eleven days of testimony, thirty five witnesses for the prosecution, two for the defense. Adrian Gonzalez, former school police officer, faces twenty nine counts of child endangerment and abandonment, one count for each of the nineteen children killed and ten who survived. He had three minutes three minutes between arriving at rob Elementary and the shooter entering that classroom. Prosecution says that was enough time to act.

0:44 Defense says inattentive blindness under stress. Now twelve jurors decide if a cop can be criminally charged for failing to save children. Virginia, the ou Pair murder trial enters week two. Defense is now calling witnesses after the prosecution wrapped with a blood spatter analyst who suggested Joseph Ryan's body may have been moved after death. Brendan Banfield's attorney tried to throw out his former mistress's testimony as unreliable. Judge denied the motion three to five defense witnesses expected and New Mexico. Timothy Busfield, the West Wing and Field of Dreams actor walked out of jail Tuesday night facing child sex abuse charges for allegedly touching two boys on the set of The Cleaning Lady. Judge ruled he's not a danger to the community. His wife Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert broke down in tears. Defense claims the boys initially told police Busfield didn't touch them, said the parents coached them after they lost lucrative TV roles. I'm reed, Carter today a verdict watch in Texas, defense strategy in Virginia and Hollywood privilege in New Mexico. This is celebrity trials.

2:01 Let's start in Corpus Christi, Texas, Nueesa's County Courthouse, Day eleven, State versus Adrian Gonzalez. Yesterday, both sides delivered closing arguments. Now twelve jurors are deciding whether a police officer can be held criminally responsible for failing to act during an active shooter situation. This is only the second time in American history that's happened. May twenty fourth, twenty twenty two rab Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Eleven thirty one, am Adrian Gonzalez School District police officer arrives at the west gate. An eighteen year old gunman had just crashed his truck in a nearby ditch, was walking toward the school with an AR fifteen rifle. Teachers aid Melody Flores saw the gunman, saw Gonzales arrive, ran to his patrol car, pointed at the fourth grade building. He's going in there. He's going into the fourth grade building, told him two or three times.

2:55 Gonzales didn't move toward the gunman. According to Flores, he paced back and forth while shots rang out. Defense witness Claudia Rodriguez, who worked at the funeral home across the street, testified the gunman ducked between cars in the parking lot, made himself hard to see. Said Gonzalez drove past him without spotting him. Here's the critical timeline, according to prosecutors. Eleven thirty one forty one, Gonzalez arrives at the West Gate eleven thirty two oh nine. Gonzalez radios shots fired fourteen seconds after parking eleven thirty two forty nine. The gunman enters the west side of the school. Eleven thirty three, forty five, the gunman enters Room one point one one.

3:39 Three minutes from arrival to entry, sixteen shots fired along the west side of the school. The gunman was outside, exposed, vulnerable. A trained officer with a firearm could have engaged him, could have delayed him, could have stopped him. Instead, Gonzalez waited for backup. Special Prosecutor Bill Turner hammered that point in closing arguments. Every second counts in an active shooter situation. Every second more victims can die if a police officer is standing and waiting. By the time Gonzalez entered the building at eleven thirty five forty six, the gunman was already inside Room one point one one, already shooting children. One hundred and seventeen shots fired in the first four minutes Gonzalez was on scene. The defense presented two witnesses, Claudia Rodriguez and retired San Antonio SWAT officer Willie Cantu.

4:31 Cantu testified about inattentive blindness, the psychological phenomenon where stress and adrenaline limit what an officer can process. Said there was missing context about what Gonzalez was seeing and hearing that it's difficult to judge his response without understanding his mental state. Prosecutor Turner pushed back, Civilians are in trouble. You know, the gunman's inside where the shots are coming from. But you're asking cover for yourself. Correct, that's where Adrian Gonzalez did, right. Cantu's response, Yeah, that's what happened. That's the prosecution's case. In one exchange, an officer hearing hundreds of shots at a school calling for backup, waiting for cover while children died. The jurors also heard Gonzalez's own words.

5:18 A recorded interview with a Texas ranger and FBI agent the day after the shooting, Gonzalez admitted he made a mistake. Now that I can sit back, I went tunnel vision, like I said, with the lady that was running. That was my mistake. Defense attorney Jason Goss tried to reframe that admission, said Gonzalez misspoke amid trauma, was mistaken about who the person was and what their intentions were. But the Texas ranger who conducted the interview pushed back, said he wouldn't make assumptions about what Gonzalez was thinking Arnulfo reis the only surviving teacher from inside Room one one one. Showed his scars to the jury, described being a black shadow with a gun enter his classroom, described being shot, described eleven of his students being killed, described pretending to be dead while the gunmen taunted him. None of Reyes's students survived, all eleven dead, nine and ten years old, while over three hundred seventy officers swarmed the scene and waited seventy seven minutes to breach the classroom. Gonzales faces up to two years in jail if convicted twenty nine counts maximum two years each, but running concurrently under Texas law, that's the price for allegedly abandoning nineteen children to their deaths two years. Here's the pattern that emerged during this trial.

6:42 Teachers grabbing scissors to defend their students, second graders hiding under tables while shots rang out, parents begging officers outside to go in, and law enforcement waiting, calling for backup, asking for shields, asking for keys while children bled out on class room floors. Gonzalez trained other officers in active shooter response just two months before the massacre. Taught them. When you hear gunshots, you go to the gunfire. But when he heard gunshots, he waited. The sister of slain teacher Irma Garcia was removed from the courtroom after an outburst during testimony. You know who went into the fatal funnel. My sister went into the fatal funnel. She did it, not you, Judge Sidhrl warned. The gallery said further outbursts could result in a mistrial, that the families needed to let the case go to verdict after everything they've been through, another mistrial would be devastating. Gonzalez didn't take the stand, didn't explain his actions, didn't tell the jury why he waited while children died. Former police chief Pete Arodondo, who investigators described as the incident commander that day, faces similar charges.

7:54 His trial hasn't been set yet. He's the only other officer criminally charged. Three hundred seventy six officers, seventy seven minutes, nineteen children dead, two teachers dead, two indictments. Welcome to justice in America. The jury is deliberating, could return a verdict today, tomorrow, next week. When they do, we'll know if a police officer can be held accountable for failing to protect children, or if I made a mistake, is enough to walk away from nineteen dead kids. Those children had names McKenna, Lee l Rod ten years old, Leilah Salazar eleven, Miranda Mathis eleven, Neve Bravo ten, Jose Manuel Flores junior ten, Xavier James Lopez ten, Tess Marie Matta ten, Rohelio Torres ten, Eleana Garcia nine. Ellie would have turned ten on June fourth. Her mother told her to stay at school that day, said she'd pick her up later.

8:51 She never got the chance. Rest in peace to all twenty one victims. Someone has to say your names right back. With the O Pair murder trial entering its second week, the defense is calling witnesses after trying to throw out the Brazilian mistress's testimony, and blood spatter evidence suggests Joseph Ryan's body may have been moved after death. Welcome back to celebrity trials. I'm reed, Carter, Fairfax County, Virginia. O Pair Murder Trial, Week two. Brendan Banfield, forty years old, former IRS agent, is charged with aggravated murder in the deaths of his wife, Christine, thirty seven, and Joseph Ryan thirty eight. Prosecutors say he orchestrated an elaborate murder plot with the family's Brazilian O pair, Juliana Paris Magalays, to kill his wife and frame a stranger. Last week was devastating for the defense. Magalhein spent two days on the stand describing how Banfield allegedly created a fake profile for his wife on a fetish dating website called fet Life, use the handle Anastasia nine, lured Joseph Ryan to the house under the pretense of violent sexual role play, then shot Ryan and stabbed his wife while staging the scene to look like a home invasion. This week, the defense started fighting back. Tuesday, Day four, defense attorney John Carroll tried to get Maglay's's testimony thrown out entirely, called it unreliable,

10:25 said she couldn't remember critical details, couldn't specify who wrote which messages on the fetlife account, couldn't remember exact dates of planning sessions. We don't have any sense of what happened on that day, even in the light most favorable to the commonwealth, Carol argued. Judge denied the motion. Trial continues, but here's where the prosecution hit back hard. Blood spatter analysis. Iris dally Graff, expert in bloodstained pattern analysis, took the stand Tuesday morning, analyzed the crime scene photos, the blood patterns, the body positions, and suggested Joseph Ryan's body may have been moved after death. That's significant. Magglheins testified that after Banfield shot Ryan, he moved Ryan's body to get Christine's blood on him, staging the scene making it look like Ryan stabbed Christine when it was really Banfield. The blood spatter evidence supports that theory. Ryan's body wasn't where it fell, it was repositioned, manipulated, part of the cover up. The prosecution's final witness Tuesday was Gary Benson, Christine Banfield's father.

11:34 He testified his daughter had a medical condition that made her bleed and bruise more easily throughout her life. That explains the extensive bruising documented during her autopsy. Defense had questioned whether those injuries were inflicted before or after death. Benson's testimony suggests they could have been caused by the violent struggle. The prosecution rested Tuesday afternoon. Now it's the defense's turn. Carol says, he'll call between three and five witnesses. Hasn't specified who, but the defense strategy is clear attack Magalais's credibility suggest she's lying to save herself, that prosecutors pressured her into testifying against Banfield when she was most vulnerable.

12:16 Last week, Carol made Maggalhai's read letters she wrote from jail, letters expressing frustration with her lawyer, despair about being separated from her family in Brazil, desperation to get out. In one letter to Banfield's mother, who was paying for her defense, Maggalhais wrote, I would give up my life for his. I will take the blame for both of us. In another letter to Banfield, sometimes I just think to myself, like I can't believe I'm facing life in prison for someone. Things weren't supposed to be this way, right, But people are stupid, including me, and make mistakes. Carol also revealed that Mogglehais was negotiating with TV producers about selling her store, discussed a documentary deal with Netflix. Producers wanted at least ten thousand dollars for exclusive rights, but was holding out for more money. So the defense narrative is Magalaise was pressured into flipping she was isolated, scared, desperate to go home to Brazil. Prosecutors offered her a sweetheart deal that requires her to testify against Banfield, and now she's trying to cash in with a Netflix documentary. But here's what undermines that narrative. The surveillance video. Crime scene detective Terry Leach played footage from the McDonald's near the Banfield home shows Brendan Banfield arriving at the restaurant the morning of the murders, waiting leaving when he got a call from Magalhai's alerting him that Ryan had arrived at the house.

13:47 Call logs match surveillance matches, timeline matches. Magalay's testimony is corroborated by digital evidence, and there's more. When police investigated the Banfield home months after the murders, they found a framed photo of Brendan and Maggle Hyes on the nightstand in the master bedroom, the same bedroom where Christine Banfield was stabbed to death, where she slept with her husband. After killing his wife, Banfield moved his mistress into the marital bedroom kept their photo on display like trophies. The fet life messages are also damning Ryan and Anastasia discussed the role play in detail. Ryan agreed to bring restraints and a knife, agreed not to stop even if she was calling for help. Was told to enter through an unlocked front door, go straight to the bedroom. He thought he was meeting Christine for consensual violent sex play. Instead he walked into an ambush. Magalanes testified she called Banfield when Ryan arrived. Banfield returned home, found Ryan on top of Christine in the bedroom. Yelled police officer. Christine yelled, Brendan, he has a knife. Banfield shot Ryan. Then, while magill Hyes was in the bathroom getting towels, she saw Banfield stabbing his wife repeatedly in the neck. She also admitted to shooting Ryan a second time when she saw him moving.

15:12 Originally told police that Banfield told her to do it, now says she made that decision herself. The medical examiner testified both deaths were rapid fatalities, dead within seconds to minutes, no chance for survival once the attacks began. If convicted, Banfield faces life in prison. Maggil Hines faces sentencing at the conclusion of Banfield's trial. Prosecutors have recommended time served in exchange for her cooperation. She's been in custody since October twenty twenty three. Christine Banfield was thirty seven years old. I see you, nurse mother. Wife had no idea her husband was plotting her murder with the woman living in their home. Joseph Ryan was thirty eight years old. His mother, daredrif Fisher, told reporters she remembers every detail of learning about his death. I could hear my own voice screaming.

16:03 It was almost like it was outside of my body, hearing that he had been killed. Ryan thought he was meeting a woman for consensual role play. Instead, he was lured to his death as a patsy in a murder plot. Rest in peace to both victims. Someone has to say your names. Timothy Busfield sixty eight years old, actor, director, Emmy winner, best known for playing Elliott on thirty Something, Meter, Dan on The West Wing, and Mark in Field of Dreams. Three time Emmy winner. Decades of television work respected in Hollywood.

16:48 Tuesday night, he walked out of a New Mexico jail facing two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse, alleged to have touched two young boys on the set of The Cleaning Lady, the Fox drama he was directing. His wife. Melissa Gilbert, the actress who played Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie, sat behind him in court, wearing a dark outfit stoic expression. When the judge announced Busfield would be released, she broke down crying. Outside the courthouse, Gilbert thanked the judge, thanked friends, relatives, co workers, and strangers who she said had showered their family with love. Here's what happened in that courtroom. State District Court Judge David Murphy heard arguments about whether Busfield should remain in custody pending trial. Prosecutors wanted him held, said the charges involved children, and he's a flight risk, said Witnesses expressed fear about potential retaliation and professional harm. Defense attorney Amber Feyerberg argued her client would be under intense scrutiny because of the publicity surrounding the charges, that bell can't be unwrung. The idea that he could then go out and be dangerous with a child in the world world where everybody knows who he is is absurd. The judge agreed with the defense, said while the crimes Busfield is accused of inherently are dangerous and involved children. Prosecutors didn't prove the public wouldn't be safe if he's released. There's no evidence of a pattern of criminal conduct. There are no similar allegations involving children

18:20 in his past. Rather, this defendant self surrendered and submitted himself to this court's jurisdiction, demonstrating compliance with the court order for his arrest. Translation, Busfield turned himself in, has no prior allegations, isn't a flight risk, goes home. But here's where the defense went aggressive. They called Alan Cardillo, director of photography on The Cleaning Lady. He testified that children on set were never left alone with individuals, that parents were present, that the parents were the ones who encouraged hugs with adults on the set. And the defense revealed that the children initially told police that Busfield didn't touch them inappropriately. During initial police interviews, the boys said nothing happened. It was only later during therapy sessions that allegations emerged. Police obtained those therapy records during their investigation.

19:10 The defense theory parents coached the children after they lost lucrative roles on the show, turned a non incident into criminal allegations because they were angry their kids got cut. Fireberg accused the parents of manipulating their children toward incriminating statements, said this is a case of bitter parents weaponizing false allegations after a professional disappointment. Prosecutor Savannah Brandenburg Kulk pushed back hard said the evidence of abuse is strong and specific, that the boy's allegations are supported by medical findings and by their therapist, that their accounts were specific and not exaggerated. She also said witnesses expressed fear about potential retaliation and professional harm. In Hollywood, going against a powerful director means risking your career. Busfield submitted character letters friends, colleagues, co workers vouching for him. His defense team says he passed an independent polygraph test. New Mexico is one of the few states that allows polygraph evidence in criminal cases, though a judge has final say on whether it can be used at trial. Here's the pattern with celebrity abuse cases.

20:21 The accused has money, fame, lawyers, and public support. The accusers are anonymous, vulnerable, and easily attacked. Defense strategies focus on destroying credibility, suggesting ulterior motives, claiming the accusers are lying for money or revenge. Maybe Busfield is innocent. Maybe the parents did coach their children. Maybe this is a case of a bitter employment dispute turning into criminal allegations. Or maybe a powerful director touched two boys on set and the industry is circling the wagons to protect one of their own. The boys in this case are twins. They were seven and eight years old when the all ledged abuse occurred. One told authorities Busfield touched him on his private areas over his clothing. The other said he was also touched, but didn't specify where and didn't say anything because he didn't want to get in trouble. Children often don't report abuse immediately. They're scared, confused, don't understand what happened. It sometimes takes therapy to bring out the truth, or sometimes therapy can create false memories. Experts disagree on which is more common. Busfield hasn't worked on The Cleaning Lady since the allegations became public. Whether he works again in Hollywood depends largely on the outcome of this case.

21:36 For now, he's out of jail a waiting trial, free to go home to his wife while two young boys and their families wait for justice. Your tax dollars at work. That's celebrity trials for Thursday, January twenty second, twenty twenty six. Uvaldi trial went to the jury yesterday. Hadrian Gonzalez faces twenty nine counts of child endangerment for failing to act while nineteen children died. Verdict could come any time. O Pair murder trial enters week two. Defense trying to discredit Juliana Paris Magalhais after blood spatter evidence suggests Joseph Ryan's body was moved after death. Brendan Banfield faces life in prison.

22:18 Timothy Bussfield released from jail on child sex abuse charges. Defense claims parents coach children after losing TV roles. Trial date not yet set. I'm reed Carter tomorrow. Uvaldi verdict watch continues and whatever else breaks. This is celebrity trials