How the El Paso Walmart shooting prosecution cost $6 million, even without a trial
More than $2 million of that went to experts hired since 2019 by the defense team representing Patrick Crusius, now 26, who pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon last month after District Attorney James Montoya decided not to seek the death penalty. The gunman, who said he attacked the Cielo Vista Walmart in August 2019 to stop 'the Hispanic invasion of Texas,' was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
Three defense attorneys – Joe Spencer, Felix Valenzuela and Mark Stevens – were paid a combined $602,000 over five years, according to the records, while defense investigators were paid more than $694,000. Another $688,000 was spent on 'miscellaneous' items, according to the records.
The records showed that the prosecution spent $1.9 million between May 2022 and April 30, with those costs covered by state grants. Those costs were for lawyers and other employees of the District Attorney's Office, and didn't include costs for the police investigation of the attack.
Spencer said defense attorneys were careful with expenses while committed to their ethical obligations to vigorously defend their client. Taxpayers paid for Crusius' defense because he was found to be indigent and unable to pay for his own defense.
'We were very cognizant from the very beginning that this case was going to be scrutinized as to how much attorneys fees were paid. So, we were very careful, very conservative. I know, personally, I didn't charge for all the hours that I put in,' he said in an interview with El Paso Matters.
Montoya couldn't immediately be reached for comment by El Paso Matters.
Spencer said the defense costs increased substantially because of efforts by former District Attorney Yvonne Rosales to recuse 409th District Judge Sam Medrano from the case, which included disclosures of extensive prosecutorial misconduct by Rosales and her associates. She resigned in December 2022.
'How much time did we spend on the Rosales shenanigans, as well as the motion to recuse Judge Medrano, which was all frivolous?' Spencer said.
County records showed that the defense and prosecution spent more than $300,000 in fiscal year 2022, when there was essentially no movement in the mass shooting prosecution aside from efforts related to allegations of misconduct by Rosales and her associates.
Spencer said former District Attorney Bill Hicks also added to the costs by providing massive amounts of case material known as discovery in ways that were difficult for defense lawyers to analyze.
Most of fiscal years 2023 and 2024 were spent arguing pretrial motions centered on defense allegations of prosecutorial misconduct by the Rosales and Hicks administrations. County records showed that the defense and prosecution spent a combined $3.2 million on the case in those years.
Spencer said the costs would have escalated if Montoya hadn't decided to end pursuit of the death penalty, which allowed for a plea agreement. He said the defense team had made it clear shortly after the Walmart attack that their client would plead guilty if the death penalty was off the table.
'We went to the state very early on and said, 'Let's resolve this case. We don't need to try this case.' But they were interested in the death penalty. As long as that was the case, we were in for the long haul,' Spencer said.
Cases that include the possibility of the death penalty are expensive to prosecute because the stakes are high. A 1992 report by the Dallas Morning News said the average Texas death penalty case cost $2.3 million to prosecute – an amount that equals $5.3 million in 2025 dollars.
The costs provided by the county are for the state prosecution of Crusius. He also pleaded guilty in a separate federal case on hate crimes and weapons charges, receiving 90 consecutive life sentences.
The federal public defender's office is generating a summary of defense costs as part of an effort by U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama to unseal records in the federal case. That summary is expected to be available this summer.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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