DA candidate James Montoya responds to campaign flier mailed by state Rep. Joe Moody

El Paso district attorney candidate James Montoya said an 11th-hour campaign flier hitting voters' mailboxes in the primary runoff election is a "smear campaign" led by state Rep. Joe Moody.

The flier is misrepresenting the facts in the Daniel Villegas case, one of the most well-known criminal cases in El Paso history, Montoya said. The political flier is headlined: "Corrupt cops put an innocent teenager in prison. James Montoya tried to keep him there."

"We had probable cause to proceed with the trial," Montoya said about the Villegas case. "We believe that there was sufficient evidence to go to trial on. When we were working on the case, our only motivation was to figure out who committed this capital murder."

The campaign flier began arriving at voters' homes on May 22, three days after early voting in the Democratic primary runoff election started. The flier states it was paid for by the "Joe Moody Campaign."

Montoya, who received the most votes in the March 2024 primary, is locked in a competitive race with Alma Trejo for the Democratic Party nomination for district attorney in the 34th Judicial District, which includes El Paso, Hudspeth and Culberson counties.

Election Day in the primary runoff election is Tuesday, May 28. The winner of the Montoya-Trejo runoff with face current District Attorney Bill Hicks, a Republican, in the November general election.

More: Legal heavyweights seeking Democratic Party nomination in El Paso DA's race

Moody, an El Paso Democrat, has worked to spotlight the Villegas case this campaign season.

"Daniel's story is an important story to be told, and so I felt strongly about that," Moody said. "I think people needed to understand what is a very complicated story. And there was certainly new information that I wasn't aware of until we got a look at the transcript that the El Paso Times published along with Daniel's op-Ed."

The transcript is a conversation between two El Paso Police Department officers discussing the case, including one officer saying, "kid’s innocent." While the other officer says it is the district attorney making the decision to go ahead and try the case.

An El Paso jury acquitted Villegas of capital murder during his third trial in 2018.

Trying the Villegas case in front of a jury of El Paso citizens was the right choice, Montoya said. He added that 409th District Judge Sam Medrano Jr. ruled the case should move forward to trial and did not dismiss it for lack of evidence.

"The whole point of having jury trials, especially for tough cases, is so we have representatives from the community decide on the sufficiency of the evidence," Montoya said. "In really strong cases, those people plead guilty. In very weak cases, those get dismissed. The cases that go to trial are the ones where we need the citizens of this community to decide."

Montoya said he believes Moody is playing a heavy role in the district attorney race to set himself up for the position in 2028.

“It is now more apparent than ever that my opponent’s entire campaign is the result of a backroom deal to keep the DA’s seat warm for Moody if or when he ever decides to run," Montoya said. "Why he chose not to run this year is anyone’s guess, but I suspect the fact that the Walmart case is still pending and he is vehemently opposed to the death penalty in all cases played no small part.

"His attempts to smear me distract from the real issues facing the DA’s office. Our DA’s office is hurting now. It needs leadership now; and certainly not from someone who sees it as a retirement gig or a cushy landing pad. I trust our community to see through their opportunistic scheme.”

More: I was innocent; DA candidate James Montoya tried to send me to prison anyway: Daniel Villegas

Moody denied he has any political aspirations for the district attorney seat and remains focused on serving the El Paso community in his current role as a state representative.

"I have no intention to run for district attorney," Moody said. "I have mulled over this in both 2020 and 2024. I have been asked to run multiple times. I have considered it. I have weighed that option very seriously and had conversations about it."

Audio recording of meeting to discuss district attorney candidates

The El Paso Times obtained a recording of a July 6, 2022, meeting between Moody, Trejo, the El Paso Walmart shooter's attorney, Joe Spencer, and attorney Amanda Enriquez, who at the time was considering running for district attorney.

Enriquez, who serves as campaign treasurer for Montoya's campaign, said she felt "intimidated and bullied" at the meeting to stop her efforts to seek the district attorney seat. Allegations Moody, Trejo and Spencer deny.

“I had serious concerns that the purpose of the meeting was to discourage and intimidate me from running, and I wanted to protect myself,” Enriquez said. “Recording the meeting was the only way I knew how to accomplish that. At the time, I was considering running because of how disastrous Yvonne Rosales' tenure was. After seeing her gross abuses of power, it was very important to me that our next DA be a fair and just leader.”

Enriquez later opted out of running for district attorney.

"After having worked with James for so long and seen how determined he has always been to be an outstanding DA for our community, I knew that I wanted to help him achieve his goals and rebuild the office,” Enriquez said.

During the meeting, Enriquez, Spencer, Moody and Trejo talked about then-District Attorney Yvonne Rosales' failures, who should run against her for the seat and the state of the Texas House of Representatives. Rosales ended up resigning from the position in December 2022. Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Hicks DA to complete Rosales' term.

Moody said in the meeting he was thinking of running for district attorney. Moody, Spencer and Trejo agreed Moody could raise the most money in an election against Rosales.

In the meeting, Trejo says she is "Plan Z" to run for district attorney.

When asked what she meant by "Plan Z," she told the El Paso Times she meant "Plan Z" as in she was not going to run for district attorney.

"That means I wasn't running for DA," Trejo told the Times. "Z is the last letter of the alphabet. It means I wasn't running for DA. At that point, I had no intentions of running for the district attorney's office. I can honestly tell you that I didn't make my decision until 2023 when I saw that the two candidates that were running for the district attorney's office had the same qualifications as the previous DA. That's when I decided. That's when I considered it.”

More: Meet the El Paso candidates: May 28 runoff election winners will be on November ballot

Moody, a champion of the justice system and abolishing the death penalty, and Spencer, whose client in the El Paso Walmart case is facing the death penalty, both denied they were supporting Trejo because they believed she would not seek the death penalty in the Aug. 3, 2019, mass shooting case.

Trejo said she has not reached a decision on how, if elected, she would handle the Walmart case. She added that Spencer and Moody will play no role in her decision to seek the death penalty or not. Spencer and Moody both said they have not talked to Trejo about the mass shooter facing the death penalty.

The Walmart case is still pending in state district court.

Should Villegas have gone to trial a third time?

Montoya was a state prosecutor on the Villegas case. Then-District Attorney Jaime Esparza made the decision to try the case. Esparza, who is now U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, is barred by federal law from campaigning or discussing elections.

When asked by the Times if Esparza made the right decision to take Villegas to trial a third time, Trejo, who previously worked under Esparza at the district attorney's office, only said there were "red flags" in the Villegas case.

"I think there's enough red flags there that warranted a very careful viewing of this case," Trejo said. "When you have three teenagers, 15-year-olds and 16-year-olds, being threatened by police officers into giving statements and confessions, I think the case really needs to be looked at."

Moody previously endorsed Montoya when he ran against Rosales in 2020. Moody said he supported Montoya because he was the best option "between two bad options."

More: Former DA candidate Nancy Casas endorses James Montoya for El Paso district attorney

"He was, I thought, better than Yvonne Rosales," Moody said. "Many times in politics, you're left to pick between two bad options. I don't think that's the case now. El Paso voters can choose a very qualified DA in Alma Trejo. The second reason is that I've found out that I was wrong based on conversations that I had with Montoya back then.

"I believed that he was open to progressive, thoughtful policies that would make our justice system fair, more effective, more ethical. But after the last election, and especially after I've learned some of the new things about the Villegas prosecution, he has shown that not to be true."

He said Montoya's use of "the Walmart case as a wedge issue in a political campaign is reprehensible. It tells me all I need to know about him."

Montoya denied he is using the Walmart mass shooting for political purposes. He stated the Walmart mass shooting is the most important case to El Paso voters and they want to know how the candidates would handle the case.

"This is an issue that is on the forefront of El Pasoans' minds," Montoya said. "The district attorney's job is to prosecute cases. This is the most heinous crime that's ever happened here. This is the fundamental responsibility of the position. Voters want to know where we stand."

Aaron Martinez may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com or on Twitter @AMartinezEPT.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: DA candidate James Montoya responds to 'smear campaign' political flier