SAN ANTONIO – Questionable actions in the criminal justice arena and two high-profile law enforcement shooting incidents were among the biggest stories covered by KSAT Investigates in 2024.
The Wren Collective
For months, KSAT dug into the working relationship between Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales and an Austin-based criminal justice reform group called the Wren Collective.
Hundreds of pages of emails and text messages between Gonzales, DA staff and the founder of the group, Jessica Brand, revealed the significant influence she has had on the inner workings of the office.
Gonzales repeatedly said publicly the Wren Collective only provided messaging and talking points to him.
But emails from Brand included draft policies on issues including diversion and bail practices.
First Assistant District Attorney Christian Henricksen, who had repeatedly discussed policy and case information with Brand, resigned from the DA’s office this spring.
He was later hired by the Travis County District Attorney’s Office, another agency that has worked with the Wren Collective.
DPS trooper shoots and kills man in Converse
KSAT Investigates found the officer who shot and killed a man after a pursuit ending in Converse this spring had previously been suspended.
Two videos obtained by KSAT showed the moments leading up to the April shooting of 37-year-old Luis Navarro, which a law enforcement expert says raises questions.
Records show Texas Highway Patrol Trooper Apolonio Gomez fired his weapon. DPS officials said Gomez tried to shock Navarro with a stun gun, but it didn’t work.
It’s not clear if Navarro was armed at the time of the fatal shooting.
Personnel records revealed DPS suspended Gomez for 10 days in 2023 for a chase that ended in Mexico.
Dash camera footage shows Gomez driving from El Paso into Juarez, Mexico to try and arrest a woman.
Gomez has not been charged in connection to Navarro’s death.
Navarro’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Gomez for the shooting. The trooper continues to defend his actions.
TOP scrutinized for bailing out defendants
KSAT Investigates in February revealed that nearly 30% of Bexar County defendants bonded out by the Texas Organizing Project as part of its bail program were later taken back into custody in the same case.
Other defendants bailed out by the prominent Texas political advocacy group were later accused in more serious criminal cases, records showed.
Among the defendants bailed out by TOP in Bexar County was Shane James, who is now charged with killing six people, including his parents, in a multi-county murder spree late last year.
James had previously been arrested in early January 2022, after BCSO deputies said he assaulted his parents and sister inside their home at 6403 Port Royal, outside Kirby.
While in custody, James’ bond was reduced twice from the original $2,000, first on Jan. 27, 2022, to $500 per case, then on Feb. 23, 2022, to $100 per case.
Laquita Garcia, statewide police coordinator for the TOP, then submitted paperwork to bond out James on Feb. 28, 2022, records show.
James was released from the Bexar County Jail on March 7, 2022, with bond conditions for the misdemeanor cases including GPS monitoring that restricted him to Haven for Hope, Crosspoint and Villa Serena, all of which offer mental health treatment.
James cut off his ankle monitor a day after being released from jail, leading the court to issue three warrants for his re-arrest, officials previously said.
Despite the outstanding warrants for his arrest, James remained free for 21 months, records show.
Deputies encountered James in a bedroom at his parent’s home months before the murders, but declined to take him into custody on the warrants to avoid a possible “violent confrontation,” Sheriff Javier Salazar previously said.
James last month was found incompetent to stand trial.
Teachers injured on campus
Stabbings, seizures and even death are among the more than 4,000 injuries reported by San Antonio-area educators in the last two school years.
KSAT Investigates spent months analyzing data from 19 districts with schools in Bexar County.
The investigation was spurred by the death of Alfred Jimenez, an instructional aide at Brandeis High School.
He died in February 2024 after Northside ISD said a student injured him in a classroom.
Jimenez’s wife, Margo, told KSAT she believes decision makers could do more to keep educators safe.
“I don’t care what it takes,” she said. “Something has to be done before it happens again.”
Among the thousands of teachers injured was Chris Dombkowsi, a special education teacher at Steele High School.
He said he hasn’t been able to return to his classroom in two years because of a traumatic brain injury caused by a student.
Medina County sheriff’s deputy shoots handcuffed teen in eye with pepper spray gun
A Medina County sheriff’s deputy fired a high-propulsion pepper spray gun into the eye of a handcuffed teenager while he sat in the back of a patrol vehicle, body-worn and in-car camera footage obtained earlier this year by KSAT Investigates shows.
The hours of footage from the June 2023 incident, released by the Medina County District Attorney’s Office, shows now-former Deputy Jonathan Nunemaker becoming increasingly agitated as teenage robbery suspect Branden Sanchez kicked and head-butted the inside of Nunemaker’s patrol vehicle following a late-night traffic stop.
Nunemaker was indicted by a grand jury weeks after the encounter and was convicted in May on two felony counts of aggravated assault by a public servant.
Prosecutors said Sanchez suffered traumatic, permanent injuries to his left eye, resulting in blindness “that is unlikely ever to resolve.”
Sanchez told KSAT via telephone the incident negatively impacted his life and that he planned to have surgery to hopefully gain back some of the vision in his eye.
SAISD lack of transparency
In a year full of financial challenges, KSAT Investigates spotlighted the San Antonio Independent School District’s handling of several issues.
The district spent millions from its 2020 bond at campuses that were then shut down as part of the district’s “rightsizing” plan.
Heating system failures and human error forced SAISD to temporarily shut down schools in January, according to records obtained by KSAT Investigates.
After learning about unhealthy amounts of lead in its water, emails and purchase orders revealed that SAISD did not buy lead filters for water fountains.
Parents criticized Superintendent Dr. Jaime Aquino’s travel during his two-year tenure as the district’s leader. Records show he spent more than $21,000 on nearly two dozen trips.
The district has also fought the release of records, including about Aquino’s relationship with his personal coach — a perk negotiated into his contract. Aquino defended it during an interview with KSAT Investigates.
SAISD spent nearly a teacher’s salary’s worth on attorneys to review records requests made by news agencies, according to invoices obtained by KSAT Investigates. Advocates for transparency criticized the expense.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.
