Longtime El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza will not seek re-election after more than 25 years in the position. “I have served this network for 28 years, and I am very pleased with the work that we’ve got achieved right here at the workplace; however, once I appearance back on all the first-rate work we’ve got completed, I assume after 28 years it is a good time to retire,” Esparza stated. “In 28 years, we have carried out loads of things which have modified the crook justice system in lots of ways.”
He added: “Constantly running difficult for victims of crimes, it’s far from our process to ensure that we see justice is performed, and this is our position within the criminal justice system. And I am very proud of these line prosecutors who do that every day. After being the DA for 28 years, we’ve done plenty of things that I am happy with.”
The widespread election for district lawyers will take place in November 2020. Esparza’s spokeswoman informed the El Paso Times that he does not plan to endorse all of us for his seat. Esparza, sixty-two, is a graduate of Burges High School in El Paso and the University of Texas at Austin. He received his law diploma from the University of Houston Law Center. In his first election bid for district attorney in 1992, Esparza beat incumbent Steve Simmons within the Democratic primary in a landslide. Simmons had held the position for more than two decades.
In his latest re-election marketing campaign in 2016, Esparza gained a tight Democratic Party primary against family and criminal regulation attorney Yvonne Rosales. He acquired approximately fifty-one percent of the vote. There was no Republican challenger. “In my time, I have constantly been requested about walking for another office, but the one element the El Paso network by no means asked me after I was first elected became if I might are seeking for some other office, and I by no means, ever thought or flirted with that idea,” Esparza said. “I always knew I had the fine process, and that it changed into the process for me. When I retire, I received’t be going for walks for something else. When 2020 ends, it to be the end of my public career.”
Esparza has treated several high-profile instances in his profession at the El Paso County District Attorney’s Office, consisting of the death sentence passed down to convicted murderer David Renteria. “I have even tried heaps of instances, so once I am requested approximately which of them stand out, every case to me is unique, once I became DA, due to the fact I got to choose and pick out those cases instead of when I was an assistant DA,” Esparza said. “All the ones are unique to me; however, one I don’t forget due to the fact I had to try him two times is (David) Renteria, who killed Alexandra Flores.”
Renteria was convicted of capital murder in 2003 in the abduction and slaying of 5-year-old Alexandra Flores. He abducted Alexandra from a Walmart at 9441 Alameda Ave. On Nov. 18, 2001, she becomes along with her family went Christmas shopping. Alexandra’s body changed into located bare and partially burned tomorrow in a carport close to Downtown. Renteria was sentenced to loss of life. He is presently on death row. Esparza stated that he got close to Alexandra’s family at the same time as trying the case and sought to make sure justice was served.
“I wasn’t truly inside the dependency of having near the victims, and I never met Alexandra, and best knew her through the case. However, that case changed into essential to me,” Esparza said. “I recognize David Renteria is on death row, and I sincerely consider that he needs to be there. I had to attempt him twice, and I did that. I did because I knew he committed the crime, and I consider the just result is where he’s precisely at these days.”
One of the most important defeats in Esparza’s career came in the closing year when a jury acquitted Daniel Villegas of capital murder after a 3rd trial. Villegas was confronted with capital murder costs in 1993, in connection with the deaths of two El Paso teenagers. Esparza was initially a kingdom prosecutor managing the case.
Villegas’ first trial, in 1994, led to a mistrial. During a retrial, Villegas was convicted by way of a jury of capital homicide and automatically sentenced to life in prison because prosecutors no longer sought the death penalty. The 1995 conviction was overturned by an appeals court in 2013, and a new trial was ordered. Villegas was released from jail after serving 18 years of his life sentence. A third trial turned into held in October, and a jury found Villegas not responsible, finishing the saga that lasted almost all of Esparza’s tenure as district attorney.
