(C) El Paso Matters.org
This story was originally published by El Paso Matters.org and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
After contentious hearing, judge promises movement on Walmart shooting case by end of month ‘This is not OK,’ relative of Walmart shooting victims says after hearing in 5-year-old case- El Paso Matter [1]
['Robert Moore', 'More Robert Moore', 'El Paso Matters', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width']
Date: 2024-09-12
Christopher Morales watched for 40 minutes as prosecutors and defense lawyers sparred in court over how many months or years might pass before a trial can be held for the man accused of killing his aunt and 22 other people at an El Paso Walmart more than five years ago.
He then watched for 10 more minutes as District Attorney Bill Hicks and defense attorney Joe Spencer talked about the hearing at news conferences outside the courtroom. He couldn’t take it any more.
“This is about the people who were slaughtered that day, and they (lawyers) are making a mess of it. And the only people who are hurting and who need to be surrounded (are) the victims,” Morales said after stepping in front of TV cameras to be heard.
“This is not about him. He brutally slaughtered people that day,” Morales said of accused killer Patrick Crusius, 26. Morales’ aunt, Teresa Sanchez, was killed in the Aug. 3, 2019, shooting at the Cielo Vista Walmart, and his mother and grandmother survived gunshot wounds.
Christopher Morales, whose aunt was among 23 people killed in the mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart, expressed frustration at the delays in bringing the case to trial in state court. He spoke to media after a scheduling conference Thursday to discuss possible deadlines for lawyers to prepare for trial. (Robert Moore/El Paso Matters)
At a hearing Thursday, 409th District Court Judge Sam Medrano asked the prosecution and defense if they were prepared for trial so he could set a scheduling order for pretrial motions. Hicks said the prosecution was prepared for trial, but Spencer and defense attorney Felix Valenzuela said they may need as much as two more years to go through evidence provided by the prosecution through what is known as the discovery process.
Medrano didn’t issue a scheduling order at the hearing, but vowed to do so by the end of the month.
He also set another hearing for Oct. 31 to discuss a defense motion filed this week that made sweeping accusations of prosecutorial misconduct since 2020. Medrano called them “very concerning claims” and told attorneys to prepare to spend all day on Halloween arguing their positions.
Thursday was the first time Crusius had appeared in Medrano’s court since his arraignment in October 2019. That was also the last time he was photographed by the media, because cameras aren’t allowed in federal courtrooms, where Crusius appeared last year.
Crusius did not speak during the hearing. He wore a bulletproof vest over his orange-and-white-striped jail jumpsuit. His arms and legs were shackled.
He is charged in state court with 23 counts of capital murder, which carries a possible death penalty, and 22 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Federal court action
The state prosecution took a back seat while Crusius awaited trial on federal hate crimes and weapons charges tied to the Walmart shooting. The U.S. Justice Department decided last year not to seek the death penalty on federal charges and Crusius pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms in federal prison, which carries no possibility of parole.
He was transferred from federal to state custody after his sentencing in U.S. District Court. He is being held in the El Paso County jail while awaiting trial.
One fact not in dispute is that Crusius was the gunman who walked into the Cielo Vista Walmart on a hot Saturday morning in August 2019 and began methodically shooting people in the store and just outside.
During his federal sentencing, prosecutors said ballistics tests showed that all the rounds fired that day came from Crusius’ AR-15 style semiautomatic rifle.
Kaitlyn Melendez, then age 9, was with her grandfather, David Johnson, when he was among 23 people shot to death by Patrick Crusius at an El Paso Walmart on Aug. 3, 2019. She was accompanied by a service dog as she gave a victim impact statement July 5, 2023, at the first day of Crusius’ sentencing hearing. (Nacho Garcia Jr./El Paso Matters)
Crusius drove 10 hours from North Texas to El Paso, parked his car in the Walmart lot, killed or wounded 45 people in one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history, then drove away and surrendered minutes later to police who drove up behind him on a street behind the shopping center.
Just before entering the store, prosecutors said in his federal sentencing, Crusius posted a screed on a website favored by white supremacists and other extremists. He echoed extremist beliefs about the “great replacement theory” that alleged a conspiracy to replace white Europeans with immigrants.
Crusius wrote that the shooting was meant to stop “the Hispanic invasion of Texas,” language that began online with white supremacists and eventually came into vogue for President Donald Trump and other conservative political and media figures.
Law enforcement officials have said Crusius acted alone.
At his federal sentencing in July 2023, Spencer said Crusius had a long history of mental health issues and had been diagnosed after his arrest with schizoaffective disorder, a mental illness that can include debilitating hallucinations.
Spencer mentioned the federal government’s decision not to seek the death penalty in his news conference after the hearing, essentially challenging state prosecutors to do the same. Although the Justice Department has refused to say publicly why it took the death penalty off the table, prosecutors at his plea hearing and sentencing strongly hinted that Crusius’ mental health history played a role.
“This is something that’s been in the works since he was born. There is strong evidence of that. That’s why the federal government did it,” Spencer said during his news conference.
When will a state trial happen?
Medrano asked the prosecution and defense to discuss their preparations for trial.
Hicks said the prosecution was prepared to proceed on all pre-trial matters “and we’re asking the court to give us a scheduling order with scheduling deadline for pretrial motions, and then a scheduling order for hearing all pretrial matters to include, hopefully, a deadline for turning over proposed jury questionnaires.”
Judge Sam Medrano of the 409th District Court said he will issue a scheduling order for the Walmart mass shooting case by the end of September. (Ruben R. Ramirez/El Paso Inc)
But Valenzuela said the defense is still wading through voluminous evidence turned over by the prosecution. On five separate occasions, he accused prosecutors of handing the defense a “mess,” instead of providing the material in an organized way.
“We’re thinking about 15 months to about 24 months to look at data to get through the mess that they gave us,” Valenzuela said.
Prosecutorial misconduct allegations
Much of the presentation by Spencer focused on the defense motion filed Tuesday that alleged misconduct by prosecutors since 2020, under the leadership of Hicks and his two predecessors, Jaime Esparza and Yvonne Rosales.
The defense motion asked for prosecutors to turn over additional evidence that may shed light on the alleged misconduct. The motion also said the misconduct might warrant dismissal of the charges, or removing the death penalty from the case.
Much of the alleged misconduct occurred during Rosales’ tenure in 2021 and 2022, particularly accusations that her legal advisor, Roger Rodriguez, intimidated witnesses and tried to obstruct justice.
Rosales resigned in December 2022 amid mounting accusations of incompetence and wrongdoing. Spencer said he didn’t hold Hicks responsible for Rosales’ actions, but he said the state has to be accountable for any misconduct.
“You can’t just say, well, that was under Mr. Esparza’s administration, this happened under the Rosales administration. Therefore, I get a mulligan. They don’t get a mulligan in a death penalty case, judge,” Spencer said.
Defense attorney Joe Spencer, center, and District Attorney Bill Hicks. left, argue before 409th District Judge Sam Medrano at a hearing Thursday. Accused mass killer Patrick Crusius sits at right with defense attorney Mark Stevens. (Ruben R. Ramirez/El Paso Inc)
In addition to the allegations against Rosales and Rodriguez, the defense motion also said prosecutors improperly recorded 15 phone calls between Crusius and his attorneys in 2020 and early 2021, and improperly sought records last year of jail visitations between the defendant and his lawyers or defense mental health experts.
Hicks acknowledged that prosecutors had maintained recordings of calls between Crusius and his defense team, but put the number at four.
“They’ve already been turned over, and after turning them over, we destroyed them,” he told Medrano.
The judge continually tried to limit arguments about the defense motion, saying the arguments will be heard at the Oct. 31 hearing.
Dueling news conferences
There was little discussion in court about prosecutors obtaining jail visitation records involving defense attorneys, and issuing a subpoena last year for records of visits by defense psychological professionals to Crusius.
The subpoena, issued by then-Assistant District Attorney Loretta Hewitt, sought records “to include the doctor’s name, notes, findings, diagnoses, prescriptions and dates and times of visits.”
Hewitt resigned later that year, accusing Hicks of being motivated by election politics in his prosecution of the Walmart shooting, an accusation the district attorney denied. Hicks, a Republican who was appointed to the job by Gov. Greg Abbott after Rosales’ resignation, will face Democrat James Montoya in the November election.
The defense motion said in obtaining jail visitation records of defense attorneys and psychology professionals, state prosecutors violated a 2020 order by U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama, who oversaw the federal case against Crusius.
“Any logs or documents maintained at the El Paso County Jail regarding visitation with Defendant Patrick Crusius and his defense team must be maintained by jail personnel in a private place and may not be accessed, collected,discussed with or viewed by any members of the public, including any law enforcement officers or prosecutors from either the State of Texas or the United States, absent further Order of this Court,” Guaderrama’s order said.
District Attorney Bill Hicks, left, and defense attorneys Joe Spencer and Mark Stevens waited for the start of Thursday’s hearing on the Walmart mass shooting case. (Ruben R. Ramirez/El Paso Inc)
Crusius was in federal custody when prosecutors obtained the jail records. In his news conference after Thursday’s hearing, Hicks said a federal judge’s order didn’t apply to the District Attorney’s Office because “we’re a separate sovereign.”
Spencer listened in on Hicks’ news conference and approached the gathered media as soon as the district attorney wrapped up.
“The federal order specifically said that the prosecutors had to follow that order. They can’t say that’s a separate jurisdiction,” he said.
District Attorney Bill Hicks, left, spoke to media Thursday as defense lawyer Joe Spencer looked on. Both lawyers spoke briefly to media after a hearing on the status of the state case against the man accused of killing 23 people and wounding 22 others at an El Paso Walmart in 2019. (Robert Moore/El Paso Matters)
Hicks and Spencer both spoke to the media after the hearing, even though Spencer repeatedly accused the district attorney of violating the court’s gag order that prohibits lawyers and witnesses in the case from talking to the media. Both said they weren’t violating the gag order by talking to the media after the hearing.
Watching all of this was Morales, who was among about 15 family members of shooting victims at Thursday’s hearing. After hearing the lawyers arguing back and forth, he walked up to the gathered media and demanded that attention be focused on those killed and injured in the Walmart shooting.
“Our families will never be the same because of what he did. We should stop the circus right now and get over it and move on. It’s not OK what’s going on. This is not OK,” Morales said.
He said he favored execution for the gunman. But he also said the victims’ families feel let down by a system that has “dropped the ball.”
“The victims are not going to let this slide. We have been told, be quiet, stay quiet. All right, fine. For five years, nothing has happened. So guess what? Now I’m here speaking to you guys.”
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://elpasomatters.org/2024/09/12/august-3-walmart-shooting-hearing-el-paso-trial-schedule/
Published and (C) by El Paso Matters.org
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 International.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/elpasomatters/
