How the state’s death penalty case proceeds against the suspect in the 2019 Walmart mass shooting could depend on who El Paso voters this November select as the county’s next district attorney.
As the state’s case remains mired with no dates set for pretrial motions and other steps necessary before a trial can even be contemplated, it appears almost certain that no trial will take place in 2024. Two of the three Democratic candidates for district attorney on Thursday said they would at least consider not seeking the death penalty in the state case against the shooter, Patrick Crusius, and instead pursue a sentence of life in prison.
Federal prosecutors in the case decided not to seek the death penalty. Crusius in July 2023 was sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms in federal prison.
“At this point, talking to the voters, there are those who believe that the death penalty is appropriate, and those who think life is appropriate,” said James Montoya, an El Paso County public defender who’s running for DA.
“The fact that the Justice Department and the Attorney General decided not to (pursue the death penalty), I think that says something,” Montoya said in an interview, cautioning that he hasn’t seen the evidence that swayed federal prosecutors not to pursue the death penalty.
The Justice Department has never explained the reasons behind the decision, though defense lawyers and prosecutors hinted during Crusius’ three-day sentencing hearing in July 2023 that his schizoaffective disorder diagnosis played a role
“To me, the biggest factor in terms of disposing of the case is where are we going to be in January 2025?” Montoya, 33, said. “If we have a trial setting in early 2025, we’ll move forward. If the case is still at a standstill by that time, we’ll have to wait and see.”
Alma Trejo, 59, a candidate who served as judge for the El Paso County Criminal Court #1 from 2002 until she resigned last fall, said if she’s elected she’ll likely continue the death penalty case – but that’s not a guarantee, she said.
“Without seeing the evidence myself, right now, it would have to be the death penalty. Is that something that can be considered in the future once I find out everything? Maybe, maybe,” Trejo said.
“But for right now, the death penalty,” she said. “Because in order to be able to get the death penalty, you have to prove that this individual is too dangerous, and that there are no mitigating circumstances. I don’t know what’s there.”
Nancy Casas, 49, another candidate for district attorney, is still working as a county attorney, which means she can’t comment directly on the Walmart case. Sam Medrano Jr., the 409th district judge who’s presiding over the Walmart case, issued a gag order prohibiting lawyers from publicly commenting on the case.
“I got the directive from the county attorney that the gag order also pertains to the county. So I have to abide by that,” Casas said.
The three democratic candidates appeared on Thursday in a debate-style forum held by the El Paso Chamber. Bill Hicks, a Republican who was appointed DA by Gov. Greg Abbott in December 2022, will stand for election in November against the winner of the three-way March 5 Democratic primary. Abbott appointed Hicks after the previous DA, Yvonne Rosales, resigned.
El Pasoans listen to district attorney candidates during a forum organized by the El Paso Chamber, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
While she couldn’t comment directly, Casas said there’s low morale among lawyers currently working in the district attorney’s office – a reference to the turnover among prosecutors overseeing the Walmart case. Most recently, former Assistant District Attorney Loretta Hewitt resigned in November as the lead prosecutor in the Walmart shooting case.
Early voting for the March 5 primary begins Feb. 20. The last day to register to vote in the primary is Feb. 5.
Campaign finance
On the fundraising front, Montoya as of Dec. 31 led his opponents after receiving $53,000 in political contributions since the start of last year. He has the most cash on hand – over $72,000 – bolstered by a $40,000 loan he took out.
Trejo raised about $18,600 last year and took out a $10,000 loan. As of Dec. 31, she had the smallest amount of cash among the candidates, with $3,384. Casas, meanwhile, raised more than $39,000 in 2023.
Casas has so far outspent her opponents, with about $51,700 in expenditures last year, compared with $28,000 spent by Trejo and over $26,000 by Montoya. Casas spent $11,000 on yard signs, and her campaign paid the Austin-based political consulting firm Y Strategy more than $30,000 in fees between July and December.
Hicks, 54, generated just under $11,300 from 39 donations, the fewest number of donors among the four candidates. That included a $2,500 donation from Salvador Perches, owner of Perches Funeral Homes. Hicks spent about $8,850 in political expenditures last year.
Montoya’s major donors included Linda Estrada, a magistrate judge who donated $3,000, Steve Ortega, a lawyer and former city councilman, who contributed $2,500, and Denise Butterworth, a former prosecutor, who donated $2,200. Rebecca Tarango, a prosecutor in the Walmart case, donated $240. She didn’t donate money to Hicks.
Democratic state Rep. Joe Moody donated $1,000 to Trejo, who also received $2,500 from the Wyatt & Underwood law firm. Casas received the most individual donations – 115 – that averaged $140. She received a handful of $1,000 donations, including from local attorneys Jesse Herrera and Russell Aboud, among others.
Revamping embattled office
During the forum late last week, all three candidates said that boosting staffing at the DA’s office remains a top priority after Rosales fired dozens of lawyers and other employees when she took office in January 2021. Chronic staffing shortages after the mass terminations – and disruptions caused by the pandemic – plagued the office throughout Rosales’ tenure, leading several judges to criticize the office for being unprepared to try cases.
“To this day, the DA’s office has never fully recovered from Ms. Rosales’ mass terminations in 2020,” Montoya said. “The lawyers that are there are undertrained and they’re overwhelmed. … Every week I see DAs missing filing deadlines, missing witnesses on witness lists – very basic things that are not happening.”
Casas, who has worked as a prosecutor for 21 years, was fired from the DA’s office when Rosales took office. She had worked as an assistant DA for 19 years under former longtime DA Jaime Esparza, who retired in 2020.
“I was part of that team that made sure that Mr. Esparza was never in the news for missing our deadlines or intending to dismiss thousands of cases,” Casas said.
Reducing the backlog of cases facing the DA’s office and collaborating with local law enforcement are her other major priorities beyond hiring, Casas said.
In an interview with El Paso Matters, Hicks blamed the ongoing staffing shortage on Rosales, who he said fired nearly half the attorneys in the DA’s office when she took office. Hicks said there were 60 lawyers working in the office when he arrived, and he’s increased that to 80 lawyers since being appointed to the position.
“That’s true – we are undermanned,” Hicks said in response to his opponents’ comments. “We still have a great deal of vacancies in the office. But we continue to build.”
Trejo emphasized that the district attorney should be more of an administrator than a litigator or a trial attorney. Trejo said her time as an administrative judge from 2015 through 2019 gave her experience setting budgets and making staffing decisions for the local court system. Managerial and administrative decision-making is “95% of the job” for the district attorney in El Paso, she said.
“The role of a DA is not to try cases,” Trejo said, adding that Esparza tried only 14 cases over 28 years in office.
“Everything that the DA does, I’ve done it before,” she said. “I do not need training wheels on day one. I do not need a team to come in and carry me and show me what to do. I am the team.”
Montoya countered that a DA must have strong lieutenants working with them, and compared Trejo to Rosales.
“With the DAs office, it is not enough to be an administrator. What the office needs now is a leader,” Montoya said. “And for someone to say ‘I can do it by myself’ is dangerous, because that’s the same mentality Ms. Rosales had when she let go of all these folks – ‘I can do this by myself.’”
On the issue of staffing, Montoya said he’s gotten commitments from a dozen lawyers who would be willing to work in the district attorney’s office if he’s elected. He also said he would stick with the prosecutors who are currently working on the Walmart shooting case.
Trejo jabbed back at Montoya, saying she’ll let candidates apply and compete for spots in the DA’s office.
“I’m not going to hire my buddies to come work for me,” Trejo said. “I can tell you that I’m going to wait. And then people will apply.”
For her part, Trejo said her major goal as DA would be to establish a mental health unit to address crimes committed by people with serious mental illnesses. And she also said she would swiftly clear a backlog of 111 murder and capital murder cases that she said still have to go to trial.
The resignations of top prosecutors on the Walmart case shows “there is no system set in place to handle this case” under Hicks, Trejo said. “It is just being passed from one prosecutor to another prosecutor.”
Hicks, meanwhile, said he expects to eliminate the case backlog that his office is facing “probably by mid-February.”
Hicks conceded that many of the attorneys currently employed in the DA’s office are working their first job as professional lawyers and have made some mistakes – like missed deadlines that Montoya pointed out. But under his leadership, the office has also secured major trial victories, Hicks said. He pointed to the recent conviction of a man on capital murder charges over the shooting death of Peter Herrera, an El Paso County Sheriff’s deputy, as well as other DUI convictions.
“Have we lost some, and had some issues with people who have missed some deadlines when they’re filing things? Yes. But we’ve also had some fantastic trial victories,” Hicks said.
“Over the past year, we have been rebuilding a district attorney’s office and a criminal justice system that was in a freefall,” he said. “The job’s not done. I’m still working. And I believe that the pathway that we are on is a good pathway.”
The post As district attorney race heats up, Walmart shooting case may hang in balance appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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