Opinion ID: 2234065
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Bank Murders

Text: Much of what transpired on the morning of September 26, 2002, was photographed by the bank's surveillance cameras. Recorded video and several time-stamped still-frame photographs from the surveillance system were received into evidence during the aggravation hearing. The photographic evidence showed that at 8:44:56 a.m., Galindo, followed by Vela and then Sandoval, entered the bank through its front door. Sandoval walked straight ahead to the teller counter, where he shot bank employees Sun and Mausbach and bank customer Tuttle at close range. Tuttle sustained a penetrating gunshot wound to the head and another gunshot wound which entered the back of her left hand. Sun sustained two penetrating gunshot wounds to his head and another which entered his neck and passed through his chest. Blood from the wounds filled Sun's air passages, causing his death by asphyxiation, described by the pathologist who performed the autopsy as a horrible-type of death occurring over a period of several minutes. Mausbach sustained a gunshot wound to the head. Like Sun, she died from asphyxiation resulting from blood filling her air passages over a period of several minutes. After entering the bank, Galindo immediately approached the private office of Elwood, which was located off the bank lobby to his left as he entered the building. Bank employees Cheryl Cahoy and Susan Staehr were seated in the office, meeting with Elwood. As Galindo approached the office, Cahoy heard a gunshot and an unidentified male voice ask if the alarm had been pulled. Cahoy heard more gunshots and ducked her head. As she did so, she heard Elwood scream. When she looked up, she saw Elwood slumped over in her chair. Elwood sustained two gunshot wounds which penetrated her lungs and heart, and a third gunshot wound to the right side of her abdomen. Neither Cahoy nor Staehr was injured. After entering the bank, Vela immediately proceeded to Bryant's private office, located off the bank lobby to Vela's right as he entered the building. Surveillance photographs show that he entered Bryant's office by 8:45:06 a.m. and exited the office at 8:45:27 a.m. Bryant's body was found lying behind her desk. She was shot at close range; one bullet penetrated her left hand as it was held up and then entered her neck. Another bullet fractured her right femur and lodged in her thigh. Bryant died from asphyxiation caused by blood from the neck wound entering her air passages, causing her to struggle for air over a period of several minutes. Bank customer Micki Koepke arrived at the bank at approximately 8:45 a.m. As she entered the building, she saw Sandoval at the teller counter. At 8:45:29 a.m., Galindo fired at Koepke from where he stood in the doorway of Elwood's office. The bullet entered and exited Koepke's upper right shoulder, and she ran to her vehicle and called the 911 emergency dispatch service. The shots Galindo fired at Koepke also struck a fast-food restaurant across the street from the bank. Vela, Sandoval, and Galindo left the bank about 45 seconds after they entered. A witness who observed Vela shortly after he left the bank testified that he was smiling. The three men forcibly entered an occupied home near the bank. Vela put a gun to the head of one resident, and the men demanded and received car keys belonging to another resident. They obtained the keys and escaped in the stolen vehicle without injuring any of the occupants of the home. They were apprehended and taken into custody shortly thereafter. Vela pled guilty to burglary, robbery, and use of a firearm to commit a felony in connection with this incident. Sandoval and Galindo were tried, convicted, and sentenced to death on each of five counts of first degree murder and related weapons charges; we recently affirmed Galindo's convictions and sentences, [11] and Sandoval's direct appeal is pending by this court. Gabriel Rodriguez, who participated in the attempted bank robbery but was not in the bank when the shots were fired, was convicted of five counts of first degree murder and related weapons charges and sentenced to life imprisonment. [12]