Longtime El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza will not search for re-election after more than 25 years in the position. “I actually 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 gadget in lots of ways.”
He added: “Constantly running difficult for victims of crimes, it’s far our process to ensure that we see justice is performed, and this is our position within the criminal justice gadget. And I am very proud of these line prosecutors who do that every day. After being the DA for 28 years, we’ve got performed plenty of things that I am definitely happy with.”
The widespread election for district lawyers will take location in November 2020. Esparza’s spokeswoman informed the El Paso Times that he does now 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 lawyer in 1992, Esparza beat incumbent Steve Simmons within the Democratic number one in a landslide. Simmons had held the position for greater than two decades.
In his maximum 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 changed into no Republican challenger. “In my time, I actually 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. “Personally, 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, so as to be the stop of my public carrier.”
Esparza has treated several high-profile instances in his profession on the El Paso County District Attorney’s Office, consisting of the demise sentence passed down to convicted murderer David Renteria. “I even have 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 after I was an assistant DA,” Esparza said. “All the ones are unique to me; however, one I definitely don’t forget due to the fact I had to try him two times is (David) Renteria, who killed Alexandra Flores.”
Renteria became convicted of capital murder in 2003 within the abduction and slaying of 5-yr-antique Alexandra Flores. He abducted Alexandra from a Walmart at 9441 Alameda Ave. On Nov. 18, 2001, as she becomes along with her family Christmas shopping. Alexandra’s body changed into located bare and in part burned tomorrow in a carport close to Downtown. Renteria turned into sentenced to loss of life. He is presently on demise 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 demise row, and I sincerely consider he needs to be there. I had to attempt him twice, and I did that. I did because I knew he devoted 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 a closing year when a jury acquitted Daniel Villegas of capital murder all through a 3rd trial. Villegas confronted capital murder costs in 1993, capturing 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 become convicted by way of a jury of capital homicide and robotically sentenced to existence in prison because prosecutors had no longer sought the death penalty. The 1995 conviction turned overturned by using an appeals court docket in 2013, and a brand new trial becomes ordered. Villegas turned into launched from jail after serving 18 years of his life sentence. A third trial turned into held in October, and a jury observed Villegas not responsible — finishing the saga that lasted almost all of Esparza’s tenure as district attorney.
