Cries heard as Santa Fe mass shooting suspect appears in court for hearing

SANTA FE, Texas – A judge will rule later this week on whether the trial of the accused Santa Fe shooter will be moved out of Galveston County.

The hearing for the accused Santa Fe High School shooter, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, took place on Monday. 

Pagourtzis' attorneys are pushing for a change of venue because they believe he can’t get a fair trial in Galveston County.

This was the first time the families of the victims saw Pagourtzis in person. Sonia Lopez’s daughter, Sarah, was wounded in the deadly attack. While in the courtroom, Sonia Lopez said she had hoped Pagourtzis would show signs of remorse but that she saw none. 

“I can truly say that I have forgiven him from the first day. I never really had any hate towards him. I never will,” Sonia Lopez said. 

Pagourtzis' defense team argued in court that they don’t believe they could find a jury that would be impartial to the facts. They pointed to the scores of social media comments -- many of them are from people in Galveston County -- that they claim to show people have overwhelming made up their minds.

“The best evidence is what people tell you about what they think about something. When they tell you they've made up their mind about a person's guilt or they've made up their mind about certain facts of the case, that makes it hard to find a fair and impartial jury,” Nicholas Poehl said.

Prosecutors argued that there are more than 289,000 potential jurors in Galveston County and the voir dire process will weed out anyone with set opinions. They claim that so many people knowing about the high-profile case doesn’t produce prejudice. Affidavits from four Galveston County mayors were included in their arguments to the judge.

The change of venue is not simply about whether a potential juror has heard about the case. The issue is whether, due to pretrial publicity and community chatter, potential jurors have already formed an opinion about the case that they cannot set aside.

Pagourtzis continues to undergo mental health evaluations. The judge is expected to rule on the defense’s change of venue request by Friday.

Another hearing in the case is set for May 10.


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