Woman details abuse by man accused of killing sons

The Graham man accused of killing his two sons locked the older boy away just out of his mother’s grasp during a Thanksgiving holiday visit, according to the mother’s testimony Tuesday.

A month later, the man, Gabriel Armandariz, took off with both boys during a Christmas visit, Lauren Smith testified.

Armandariz, 32, is on trial on a capital murder charge in Fort Worth. He is accused of strangling 8-month-old Luke and 2-year-old Gatlin on April 13, 2011, at his home in Graham, northwest of Fort Worth.

Investigators have testified that Armandariz hid their bodies in a crawl space underneath the house, which he shared with his family.

His trial was moved to Tarrant County because of extensive pretrial publicity. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Smith said she left Armandariz because he hit her and continually accused her of having affairs with other men. Weeks after she left, Smith said, Armandariz convinced her that he’d won tickets to a basketball game in Wichita Falls and wanted to take Gatlin.

Smith said she felt too guilty to say no, so she allowed Armandariz to pick them up from Sudan, where she lived, and planned for the boys and her to spend the weekend with Armandariz.

“After we moved out to Sudan, I knew for a fact that I was ending my relationship with Gabriel,” Smith told the jury. “But in no way was I trying to end his relationship with his boys.”

Armandariz promised to take Smith and the boys back to Sudan on Sunday so she could go to work, but he persuaded her to stop at his sister’s house on the way so Gatlin could see his cousin. Once they arrived, Smith testified, she was locked out of the house.

“I’m banging on the front door, saying, ‘Gabriel don’t do this to me,’” Smith testified. “They are all inside listening to me begging for my children.”

Smith said she persuaded Armandariz to let her take Luke home because she was still breast-feeding him.

“I wanted both my boys,” Smith said. “But I was at his mercy.”

Legal uncertainty

During the next 30 days, Smith said, she and Armandariz talked and she felt as though she had convinced him that the boys should be raised together. Armandariz visited Smith during the Christmas-New Year’s season and spent the night.

Both boys opened presents that night, Smith said. The morning that Armandariz was scheduled to leave, Smith said, she took a shower to prepare for work. Smith testified that she hoped she and Armandariz had worked out their differences and that both boys would remain with her.

When she got out of the shower, Armandariz and her sons were gone, Smith said.

“Now I feel entirely defeated,” Smith said.

Smith said she believed that she and Armandariz had a common-law marriage because they filed joint federal income tax returns. After she left him, she testified, she worked with a legal-aid attorney to formalize a custody arrangement.

The attorney told the jury that she later dropped a divorce filing because Armandariz had never received a divorce from another woman with whom he may have had a common-law marriage.

‘Jealous personality’

Smith testified that she was raising a daughter, Kamryn, when she met Armandariz and soon became pregnant with Gatlin.

She got a glimpse of Armandariz’s temper when they were visiting her daughter’s family. Armandariz threw clothes and furniture on the front lawn of the house, Smith said.

After that, Kamryn’s father, Jeremy Larremore, said he did not want Armandariz around his daughter anymore, Smith said. Larremore’s family went to court to modify the custody arrangement, significantly reducing the time that Smith could spend with her daughter.

Smith testified that she allowed Armandariz to remain in the house when she had Kamryn, so the judge reduced her access to her daughter a second time and made all her visits supervised.

“I was 18 and pregnant with Gatlin,” Smith said. “Here I am with my daughter coming from a broken home. Why should I deal with my son coming from a broken home, too? I felt like I could juggle all that and eventually it would be all right. Now I’m seeing how stupid that was.”

Smith said that Armandariz had a child from a previous relationship and that she thought he understood about her relationship with Larremore.

But they began fighting about it, Smith said.

“Gabriel became physically abusive after I got pregnant with Gatlin,” Smith testified. “Gabriel was jealous. He had a jealous personality.”

Smith is expected to continue testifying Wednesday.

This story was originally published February 24, 2015 at 3:14 PM with the headline "Woman details abuse by man accused of killing sons."