Defense lawyers in Walmart shooting ask for contempt order against DA Bill Hicks
Defense lawyers for the suspect in the 2019 Walmart mass shooting are asking a judge to hold District Attorney Bill Hicks in contempt of court for statements he has made to the media about the case.
In a motion filed Tuesday, the attorneys for Patrick Crusius allege that Hicks has repeatedly violated a gag order that 409th District Judge Sam Medrano imposed in 2022 that largely prohibits attorneys and other parties in the case from making statements to the media.
Hicks said he has complied with Medrano’s gag order and legal ethical standards.
“I am confident that all of my comments have been in conformity with the spirit of the order and the Code of Professional Responsibility,” Hicks told El Paso Matters.
Defense attorney Joe Spencer declined to comment about the motion, citing Medrano’s gag order.
The next hearing in the Walmart mass shooting case is Dec. 11, a continuation of two days of hearings Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 into allegations of prosecutorial misconduct made by defense lawyers for Crusius. It’s not clear if Medrano will take up the defense request to hold Hicks in contempt at that hearing.
Hicks, a Republican who lost the Nov. 5 election to Democrat James Montoya, will leave office at the end of the year.
The defense lawyers have alleged in previous court filings and hearings that Hicks has violated Medrano’s 2022 gag order by regularly talking to the media about the Walmart case. But the motion filed Tuesday was the first time they laid out a case for holding Hicks in contempt.
“Because Mr. Hicks has indicated through his conduct that he will not stop violating the gag order, the only way for this court to protect Mr. Crusius’s right to a fair trial and enforce its jurisdiction is to institute contempt proceedings against the state through Mr. Hicks,” the motion said.
The motion says Hicks is trying to influence the jury pool for an eventual trial, which undermines Crusius’ rights to a fair trial.
No trial date has been set, but Medrano issued a scheduling order earlier this year that could lead to a trial at some point in 2026.
Crusius is charged with 23 counts of capital murder and 22 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon stemming from the Aug. 3, 2019, mass shooting at the Cielo Vista Walmart. He faces a possible death penalty.
He pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes and weapons charges in the Walmart shooting in 2023 and was sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms in prison, with no possibility of parole.
Medrano issued a gag order in the case in July 2022, after finding that then-District Attorney Yvonne Rosales was making statements to the media that could impact the defendants’ fair trial rights. Rosales resigned in December 2022 as she faced a petition to remove her from office, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Hicks to the position.
The gag order said “attorneys, their staffs, and law enforcement officers involved in this case shall not discuss this case with the media,” with limited exceptions for general descriptions of the case.
Hicks has discussed the case with the media in several news conferences and interviews. He has said his comments about the case are within the bounds of the gag order.
The defense lawyers disagree and are now asking Medrano to find Hicks in contempt of court and to impose sanctions against him.
If found in contempt of court, Hicks could be fined or jailed. The defense lawyers also are asking Medrano to consider additional steps to remedy what they say are efforts to deny Crusius a right to a fair trial.
The motion suggests steps “such as additional or unlimited peremptory strikes (of potential jurors) for the defense; the creation of an admonishment concerning the State’s misconduct to be read to jurors during jury selection and before the testimony of certain witnesses and jurors’ deliberation; or precluding the state from seeking the death penalty.”
