The El Paso district attorney is requesting a 30-day delay in a key hearing that could determine critical elements in the state’s death penalty case against the El Paso Walmart mass shooter .
District Attorney Bill Hicks has requested a continuance in a motion that alleges 409th District Judge Sam Medrano, who is presiding over the case, approved defense attorney’s motions without notifying prosecutors, court filings show.
A hearing on the motion is set for 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24, at the Enrique Moreno County Courthouse in Downtown El Paso.
Court records do not state if the gunman, 26-year-old Patrick Crusius, will attend the hearing. He is scheduled to appear at an Oct. 31 hearing, where a handful of motions filed in the past two weeks, are set to be heard by Medrano. The Oct. 31 hearing is expected to last at least two days.
The motion for continuance hints that Thursday’s hearing will be contentious as defense attorneys again make allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and political grandstanding by the districts attorney’s office. Hicks, meanwhile, is raising questions about Judge Medrano’s communication with defense attorneys.