In an effort to avoid unnecessary emotional pain, Ronald Rodriguez asked that only the eldest child of five siblings, a 12-year-old, testify in his father’s wrongful death trial. And the Laredo lawyer only kept the child on the stand briefly and pointed out his siblings in the courtroom.
But the five children’s loss of their father, Carlos Aguilar—a loss that “could have been avoided”—Rodriguez said, must have registered deeply with the Dimmit County jury that on Dec. 5 issued a $281 million verdict in favor of the family.
