James Montoya, Alma Trejo face off in runoff election for El Paso district attorney seat
Two legal heavyweights with decades of experience will face off in a runoff election to determine who will represent the Democratic Party in a bid to win back the El Paso district attorney seat.
James Montoya and Alma Trejo will face off in a May 28 runoff election as neither could gather more than 50% of the votes in the March 5 primary election to win and advance to the El Paso district attorney general election.
Montoya, currently an El Paso County deputy public defender, received 38% of the votes, 12,949, while Trejo, who resigned as El Paso County Criminal Court #1 judge to run for district attorney, received 36% of the votes, 12,240.
Nancy Casas, currently an assistant county attorney, finished in third with 27% of the votes, 9,259, ending her bid for the highest law enforcement seat in West Texas.
Montoya will head to his second runoff election to lead the district attorney's office. In 2020, he lost a close race to Yvonne Rosales, who would end up resigning in 2022 as district attorney amid allegations of official misconduct, incompetence and mishandling of the El Paso Walmart mass shooter death penalty case.
Republican Bill Hicks was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott to take over the seat. He was unopposed in the GOP primary.
"It's been distressing and very troubling to see the amount of injustice that's been happening for the last four years," Montoya said looking back on the tenure of Rosales' administration and now Hicks' tenure as district attorney. "The huge backlog of cases, cases getting dismissed by the thousands because they were not processed in a timely manner, the delays in the Walmart case, the Ivan Gabaldon case where a murder case was dismissed because they (Rosales administration) were being unconstitutionally vindictive.
"It broke my heart to see all this happening. But those are all symptoms. The underlying cause of all of that was Yvonne Rosales' personnel decisions when she decided that the first thing she was gonna do was dismiss everyone who supported me, and not just lawyers, it was staff investigators, victim services personnel and that crippled the district attorney's office, and it persists to this day, even under Bill Hicks. He has not been able to staff the office."
This will be Trejo's first runoff election in her lengthy political career. Trejo was judge for El Paso County Criminal Court #1 for about 21 years before resigning to run for district attorney. Since winning the position, she has run unopposed in every election in her bids to retain her judicial seat.
"We are going to have to regroup and figure out what worked, what resonate with the voter and what didn't," Trejo said. "What I have heard from voters is that their biggest priorities are the Walmart case, the backlog of cases and the shortage of attorneys."My message to the community is that you need to come out to vote. These races are very important. They deal with your public safety. My public safety. Our families' public safety. Our community's public safety. The runoff election is very important to our community and hope voters come out and vote."
>>>CLICK HERE for Super Tuesday Texas primary election results in El Paso County.
Both Trejo and Montoya will focus on continuing to meet with voters in the months leading to the runoff election.
"Turnout wasn't great right now and if you follow the pattern, there is generally less turnout in the runoffs, so it makes it even more important to go out there to talk to individual voters and educate about how important this race is," Montoya said. "I hope people understand their criminal justice system is on the ballot. This election is about what kind of criminal justice system does this community want. My experience and the fact that I have a team ready, willing and able to go back to the district attorney's office on day one has really resonated with voters.
"I have a team ready to get the El Paso Walmart case back on track, to start addressing the backlog of cases. None of my opponents can say that. Not even Hicks can say that as the Walmart has been slow moving under him."
Unlike the 2020 runoff election, Montoya said he will be able to continue to meet with voters in person. Campaigns for the 2020 primary runoff were heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced candidates to stop meeting with voters in person and moved all campaign events to virtual meetings.
"Honestly, it's almost comparing apples to oranges because the (2020) runoff, we had the primary in March, a week later, COVID happened and we had to campaign during COVID," Montoya said. "And that really hampered our ability to go door to door, not just hampered, it eliminated our ability to speak to voters directly at their homes. To me, I think that's a really critical part of campaigning getting to know people face-to-face in group settings. Basically the entire campaign had to switch to Zoom and phone calls and that just wasn't as effective."
The two candidates will continue to promote their respective plans for handling the Walmart mass shooting case, regaining voters' trust in the Democratic Party, addressing a staffing shortage in the district attorney's office and tackling a backlog of thousands of cases.
The candidates will also have to make an argument to voters as to why they can successfully challenge an incumbent district attorney who has successfully tried several high-profile cases in his less than two years in office.
The seat is the highest law enforcement seat in West Texas. The District Attorney of the 34th Judicial District oversees all state criminal cases in El Paso, Hudspeth, and Culberson counties.
Supporters focused on El Paso Walmart case, crime rate and bringing stability back to DA's office
For Hilda and Antonio Avila, Montoya was the best candidate because of his years of experience and the stability they believe he will bring to the district attorney's office.
"We decided to vote for James because he's the best candidate for this position," Hilda Avila said. "I believe he has the experience and he is a man of integrity. Justice was the biggest reason we support James. Justice is supposed to be for everybody. I mean, fair justice. We need James to go in there and get things back on track, especially the Walmart case. It is taking too long."
Antonio Avila argues that the DA needs to help police restore public safety in the city.
"El Paso was one of the safest cities but it is not anymore," he said. "James has the experience and the technical capacity to bring El Paso back to where it needs to be."
Melanie Ramirez voted for Trejo because of the former judge's years of experience running a courtroom, managing a large staff and working with lawyers for the betterment of the community.
"I've seen how amazing she is," Ramirez said. "When she sets her mind to something, when she sees that something needs to be fixed, she literally will just research it and continue to work on it. She calls everybody. She's very good at bringing people together to fix a problem. She's so good at that. She brings in all the parties, all the stakeholders and says, 'this is the problem. This is what I think needs to be done. How can we get it done?' And that's what she does.
"She fixes things and that's what we desperately need in our DA's office right now."
More: El Paso District Attorney candidates fight to return office to Democratic leadership
El Paso Walmart shooting case
The biggest battle for the two candidates moving forward will be showing voters why they are qualified to handle the most significant criminal case in El Paso history.
The state's death penalty case against the Walmart mass shooter who killed 23 people and wounded dozens of others has remained at a standstill since the Rosales administration and has made little progress under Hicks.
A trial date has not been set nearly five years since the gunman came from Allen, Texas Aug. 3, 2019, to shoot Hispanics in a racially-motived shooting. Rosales left the case hanging in the balance and Hicks has been unsuccessful in getting a trial date as he and his team continue to argue with defense attorneys over the handling of the evidence.
More: What you know to know about money being donated in El Paso District Attorney race
Montoya and Trejo said they would continue to seek the death penalty. However, both said once they are district attorney and have access to the case files; they may change course and enter a plea agreement with the gunman, similar to what the U.S. Attorney's Office did to secure a conviction in the federal case against the gunman.
Montoya was part of the Jaime Esparza administration when it was first announced the district attorney's office would seek the death penalty against the gunman. Trejo has received large donations from the Walmart defense team in her bid for the district attorney seat.
Regaining voter trust, recovering from former administration
The DA's office has been in the hands of the Democrats for more than three decades, but the saga of the Rosales administration left the office in the hands of the Republican Party.
The two remaining candidates must now show voters a Democrat is again capable of running the highest law enforcement seat in West Texas.
Montoya has campaigned on running a hands-on administration in which he would play a larger role in handling cases. He has focused on his experience as the only candidate to try cases as a prosecutor and defense attorney.
Trejo has campaigned on her experience of running large budgets and the importance of having a candidate who can manage a large staff and an annual budget of $22 million.
More: Democrat El Paso district attorney candidates call for sweeping changes in DA's office
Both candidates claimed they could bring stability to the office, which is dealing with a staff shortage. The candidates claim the staffing shortage is the reason the case backlog was created under Rosales.
On the campaign trail, Montoya said he has over a dozen attorneys ready to work for him on day one if elected. Trejo has claimed her decades in the legal community puts her in a position to immediately hire staff.
While the candidates have claimed the office is facing a massive staffing shortage, Hicks has denied his office is facing a staffing shortage. Hicks said he currently has more than 73 prosecutors and 124 staff members working for him. The last time the office was fully staffed was under the Esparza administration when the long-time district attorney had more than 90 prosecutors and 150 staff members.
Hicks did not respond to requests for comment on his campaign to retain the district attorney seat.
The annual salary for the district attorney is $198,104, El Paso County officials said. The district attorney receives $140,000 from the state of Texas, while $58,104 is paid for by the county.
The candidate elected to the seat will oversee all state adult felony and misdemeanor cases committed in El Paso, Culberson and Hudspeth counties.
Aaron Martinez may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com or on Twitter @AMartinezEPT.
>>>CLICK HERE for Super Tuesday Texas primary election results in El Paso County.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso DA race headed to runoff after Texas primary election night
