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The Drag.

One of the first thing that's

one of the first thing

was that Irene Garza's case had many intersecting points for people within it.

Well, I found out that part of my life also intersected with this story.

That point for me was with Michael Garza, the prosecutor on Irene's case.

My younger brother was close friends with Michael's son.

My little brother and his son were ball boys for one of the

McCallan High School football teams when they were in elementary school, and they've remained

friends ever since. Also, Michael's stepdaughter was a great above me, and we crossed paths several

times because we went to the same high school. Later on, we also ended up at UT at the same time. Her name is Caitlin

Gomez, or Kate for short, and Irene's trial occurred back when we were both in high school.

I was a freshman and she was a sophomore. For me, 2017 was a typical year, but Kate saw her stepdad

devote copious amounts of time to Irene's case.

Yeah, it was just like kind of mentally preoccupied, which like makes sense.

But like I remember like going over and seeing, you know, stuff like strewn about all over.

I went to his office one time and it just looked crazy. Like, I don't know. I think at the

time I wanted to be a lawyer too, so I was like, this is so cool. This is so rad. This is, I don't know,

it's like what you see in movies, but in real life. Yeah, it didn't feel real. He was stressed for sure.

This would be a landmark case in the Valley, and Michael was up against time.

Many people involved in the case had passed away or moved from the Valley the almost six

...