Emilio Villlareal’s family can finally close this chapter of their loss. On September 11, 2015, Emilio’s mom came home from work and found her 23 month old son unresponsive. He was limp, breathing heavy, and his eyes rolled back in his head. Her boyfriend, Joe Gallardo, was left in charge of Emilio and Gallardo’s one year old son. Gallardo claimed he had no idea what happened to the child. Emilio’s mom called 911. EMS did all they could, and airlifted Emilio to University Hospital. After 3 days on life support, Emilio was pronounced dead. Doctors said Emilio suffered severe and massive head trauma similar to that of a car crash. The investigation revealed that the only person responsible for this was the sole person watching him, Joe Gallardo. Gallardo never cooperated with Child Protective Services or Pearsall Police Department, and claimed Emilio fell from a small ride-on Barbie Jeep.
This case was finally presented to a grand jury after I took office in 2017, and was set for trial when Covid hit. Once he was set for trial again, the defendant fired his attorneys which caused further delay. On January 10th, the second day of jury selection, the defendant opted to plead guilty to the injury to a child charge and let the judge determine his sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
Gallardo’s attorney pleaded with the Honorable Judge Wilson for probation. But after review of the thorough presence investigation prepared by Chief of Adult Probation Renee Merten, the judge sentenced Gallardo to the maximum 30 years.
The hearts of so many dedicated public servants went into Emilio’s case. The Frio County EMS, the nurses and doctors at University Hospital, the CPS workers all remembered Emilio. One CPS worker cared so deeply for Emilio that she attended Gallardo’s sentencing hearing. Then Pearsall PD Chief Peter Salinas and Sgt. Mike Guerrero were instrumental in the investigation of the case. We are grateful for everyone’s hard work, and most thankful that the family is able to find some long overdue justice for Emilio.
