So when Judge John Beck Hardin climbed the spiral staircase to the second floor of the Gillespie County Courthouse at nine that Friday morning, he entered a nearly vacant courtroom. It was his fifth day on the job. He sat behind the bench. The D.A. occupied the prosecution table, and Bruno Stutz the defense table. Slade loomed large next to Stutz; he looked like an action-figure in a suit. Quentin McQuade sat directly behind them in the spectator pews; next to him sat a teenage girl who looked as if she'd rather be taking the SAT. Only a handful of people inhabited the spectator pews. On the front row across the aisle from Quentin McQuade sat a young woman with a small notebook in one hand and a pen in the other, no doubt a reporter. About halfway back sat a Latino boy whom Beck recognized as Julio Espinoza; sitting next to him was an older white-haired Latino man dressed in a suit, former Congressman Felix Delgado. In the pew directly behind them sat three Latinos whose body language said "La Raza Unida." Leaning against the back wall by the entrance doors was Sheriff Grady Guenther.
