Jurors shaken by autopsy photos of young brothers

This report contains graphic descriptions.

Jurors in the capital murder trial of a Graham man wept Thursday as they viewed autopsy photos of two young brothers who were hanged.

Gabriel Armandariz, 32, is accused of strangling his 8-month-old son, Luke, and his 2-year-old son, Gatlin, on April 13, 2011, at his family’s house in Graham. He hid their bodies in the crawl space under the house they shared with relatives, prosecutors say.

The bodies of the two boys were transported to the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office still wrapped inside the green tarp in which a Texas Ranger found them, said Marc Krause, chief deputy medical examiner.

Before being wrapped in the tarp, the bodies were stuffed inside a burgundy pillow case, according to the photographs and testimony.

The boys were dressed in orange shirts, and one of Gatlin’s arms was draped around his younger brother’s shoulder.

As the photographs appeared on a screen inside the courtroom, one juror, a woman, dabbed her eyes with a tissue, while another grasped her hands to stop them from shaking. Throughout Krause’s testimony Armandariz stared at the defense table, not moving his eyes.

On Wednesday, jurors watched a videotaped interview between a television news reporter and Armandariz in which he insisted that he did not hang his children.

Krause said the autopsy photographs refuted what Armandariz said to the TV reporter.

Krause testified that Luke, the younger boy, was suffocated before being hanged.

Luke’s upper lip was crushed against his teeth and his lower lip was punctured, and there was bleeding from small broken blood vessels, all indicators of suffocation, Krause said.

“In my opinion, the suffocation was unsuccessful and he died from the hanging,” Krause said. “My opinion is they were both homicides.”

The older child, Gatlin, had a green cloth strap wrapped tightly around his neck at least three times, Krause said. The cloth, secured by an overhand knot, caused bleeding around the neck area, Krause said.

The autopsy also found exterior bruising and abrasions in the head, back and neck areas that were likely caused after death, Krause said.

Both children would have lost consciousness in a matter of seconds, whether through suffocation or hanging, Krause said. Physical death from hanging would typically occur in three to five minutes, Krause testified.

Neither child showed any other signs of physical or sexual abuse, Krause said.

When prosecutor Lisa Tanner asked Krause if performing autopsies on children is particularly traumatic for him, he said no.

“I try not to get emotionally involved,” Krause said. “I can’t afford to.”

If Armandariz is convicted, prosecutors will ask the jury to sentence him to death. The case was moved from Young County to Tarrant County because of extensive pretrial publicity. Graham is about 90 miles northwest of Fort Worth.

This story was originally published February 26, 2015 at 2:11 PM with the headline "Jurors shaken by autopsy photos of young brothers."