Results: El Paso District Attorney
EL PASO, TX (KVIA) -- The El Paso County District Attorney will be one of the many positions decided during Election Day.
The two candidates are current DA Bill Hicks and challenger James Montoya.
Montoya served as an Assistant District Attorney in the El Paso DA's office from 2013-2020. He handled over 100 homicide cases, including the August 3rd shooting.
Montoya is running as a Democrat for the second time. He currently serves as a Deputy Public Defender for El Paso County.
Montoya ran against Yvonne Rosales in the 2020 election, where he lost in a runoff by just 1,200 votes.
Montoya stated that he believes the biggest issue facing the DA's office right now is staffing. He believes that after Rosales left office, the office does not have enough lawyers to give cases justice.
He stated that he has a group of 15 lawyers who are open to joining the DA's office under his leadership.
His other main priority with the office would be to make sure that the Walmart case is responsibly prosecuted.
The Walmart case will be a big issue among voters in this race. The case has been through 3 separate administrations in 4 years, and if Montoya is elected, it will be 4 in 4 years.
In a questionnaire with KVIA in September, Montoya stated: "I intend to seek the death penalty against the Walmart shooter. This was the single-worst hate crime against Hispanics in the United States and it grievously harmed our community. Having spoken to many citizens during this election cycle and in 2020, I believe it is necessary that the shooter go to trial and have his punishment decided by a jury of El Pasoans.
Hicks has been the DA since 2022 when Texas Governor Greg Abbott appointed him after Rosales left.
Hicks has a lot of support in El Paso, even with him being a Republican. He also believes that the top priority for the office has to be filling out a staff of lawyers to help take on more cases.
He states his experience as the main factor that he holds over Montoya. Hicks has 15 more years of experience than Montoya as an attorney, and was an Assistant DA for 5 more years than Montoya.
Like Montoya, Hicks's top priority is getting the Walmart case to trial. In a questionnaire with El Paso Times, Hicks stated:
"I believe that our community will truly begin to heal once we all see and hear the evidence in the case; once we all know what really happened before, during and after the shooting; once all of the questions have been answered. I do not think that a plea will satisfy those questions."
