El Paso District Attorney Yvonne Rosales thinking about asking Texas Attorney General for help trying the Walmart Mass Shooting Case
EL PASO, Texas -- ABC-7 has obtained court documents saying El Paso's District Attorney, Yvonne Rosales is considering asking the Texas Attorney General for help trying the Patrick Crusius case.
Crusius is the accused shooter in the 2019 Walmart Massacre.
We pored over court documents overnight and found a letter Rosales wrote to the Federal Judge presiding over the case, including the U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, among others. She is trying to get the State Judge presiding over the state case removed and now she's accusing Crusius Defense Attorney of prolonging the state and federal cases to milk the taxpayers.
In her letter, Rosales first accuses Judge Sam Medrano of "severe retaliation" to prevent them from trying the case.
The letter stems from this hearing when Judge Medrano openly questioned her after she said she hoped to try the case in 2023, even though she hadn't filed any documents on the case. During the hearing she also said jury selection on the case could take 2 months.
That's when Defense Attorney Joe Spencer contradicted her saying prior experience in death penalty cases and other mass shooting trials led him to believe jury selection alone would take 6 to 8 months.
Spencer said Rosales' position was "disingenuous and unrealistic." Now Rosales claims Spencer is trying to delay both cases to take advantage of taxpayers without accountability.
We were unable to seek comment from Spencer overnight. There is a separate case to try to remove Rosales from office for alleged incompetence. We will continue to update you on any developments.
