EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Three challengers are going up against Democratic incumbent Gerald Byers in New Mexico’s Primary for district attorney in the Third Judicial District.

Along with Byers, voters will see Fernando Macias, Ramona Martinez and Shaharazad Booth on the ballot.

The winner of this election will go up against Michael Caine in New Mexico’s general election in November. Caine is running unopposed in the Republican Primary.

KTSM spoke with all five district attorney candidates to ask their platforms and why they believe they are the best choice for the role of DA.

What is your platform and why are you running for district attorney?

Fernando Macias:

“The reason to run for district attorney is to address the issues of crime in the community and to try to figure the the methods of improving the criminal justice system as it works in Dona Ana County.”

Ramona Martinez:

“First of all, I’m a native New Mexican. I have been serving New Mexicans for almost 20 years. I was taught the values of community, hard work and integrity. And those values have led me throughout my life. That is the reason why I am running for district attorney. I believe that these values are shared within our community and right now they are not being reflected. And I have been practicing in Indiana Country as a criminal defense attorney and representing victims of crime for the last 10 years. I’m in the courtrooms every single day. I’m on the front lines of what has been happening to victims of crimes and those who are and those that are accused.”

Shaharazad Booth:

“I was a prosecutor, a deputy district attorney, and now I’m a private defense attorney here in Las Cruces. And so having worked on both sides of the aisle, I have seen kind of how the District Attorney’s Office, the dysfunction in that office, is bled into the community here in Las Cruces and all of Dona Ana County, which makes up all of the Third Judicial District. And because of that, I’ve noticed kind of this sentiment in the area, that restorative justice and these more compassionate versions of justice might not be the right answer. And frankly, that’s just not the tone I want to have happen for southern New Mexico and Dona Ana County. I have a 7-year-old who attends Las Cruces Public Schools, and I’ve been in the community now for almost 20 years.”

Gerald Byers:

“It’s to continue the work that we had begun. As you know, my account, my first administration started in the middle of Coronavirus and that significantly affected things. But we learned from that and we instituted some new procedures, such as getting software that would bring us into the 21st century. We’re the only District Attorney’s Office in the state that has that. And also we’ve initiated some new border prosecution initiatives associating ourselves with the Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies to ensure public safety.”

Michael Caine:

“First, I am a Republican. I have 24 years of experience as an attorney. I moved here in 2000, with my wife. My wife’s from El Paso. I met her when I was out there in the Army at Fort Bliss back in 1989. My daughter lives here. She’s a schoolteacher with the Las Cruces Public Schools. I have two grandkids. And actually, next week, my sister is moving from North Carolina to come live with us here. So our family have put down roots here. We’ve invested ourselves in this community. I have seen a marked increase in the dysfunctionality. I want to use the right word for the DA’s office. I think that a lot of people are recognizing and I think that’s why you have the incumbent and three other people challenging him in only a Democrat Primary side. The things that I bring to this are competence. I’ve done somewhere between 150 and 200 jury trials. I haven’t really kept track. I don’t think people that do it really keep track. But as near as I can calculate, somewhere in the ballpark of 150 to 200 full jury trials. I am a farmer, a former Army officer. I was a captain when I got out of the Army.”

What sets you apart from your opponents?

Fernando Macias:

“The vast management and administrative experience that I have. I certainly have served as a district court judge, including three years as the chief judge of the Third Judicial District. I presided over 10,000 cases. I would say that 80% of them were adult felony criminal cases. I have a long history of holding positions of extensive management and administrative requirements. I recently completed six years as the county manager, where I oversaw the work of hundreds of employees and multiple millions of dollars in terms of the budget. I think one of the things that had been lacking from the District Attorney’s Office is not the knowledge in terms of how to prosecute an individual case. What has been lacking is the ability to manage the prosecution of 3,000 cases a year. I believe that my strengths in terms of having served in all three branches of government as a state senator, as a district court judge, as a administrator of many government programs, I believe that that clearly sets me apart from the other candidates in the race.”

Ramona Martinez:

“Part of my work has been advocating for community rights, being a voice for the voiceless in the places where it’s needed most, and also making sure that people who are marginalized, their voices are being heard. Again, my legal career has been dedicated to serving indigent clients. I understand as a business owner what businesses are facing. And in the area of Las Cruces, however, my rural roots also help me connect with those people outside of Las Cruces, because I understand that Las Cruces problems are not everyone’s problems. We have a very diverse community, and my diverse background enables me to be able to connect and understand on a community level the importance of the District Attorney’s Office and the power it holds over people’s lives and how it can actually effectively change people’s lives for the better.”

Shaharazad Booth:

“One of the biggest things is my experience on both sides. So having been a deputy district attorney, having managed some prosecutors in my time, but also on the defense side from having spoken with defendants, really worked with them and seen how they’ve ended up, where they’ve ended up and why they’ve gone the route that they have. Gives me a unique perspective to not only have the compassion for the people who come in contact with our criminal justice system, but also the knowledge and know how to affect change, how to prosecute these cases and to understand how to work with victims with the same level of compassion and care that I had whenever I was a deputy district attorney. During that time, I built my focus around victim-based crimes. So I was the Domestic Violence Prosecutor of the Year. I was also the Community Hero award winner for the Coalition Against Domestic Violence. So given that unique focus, I feel like none of the rest of the candidates come in with not only the experience to manage the District Attorney’s Office, but also the experience on the defense side as well.”

Gerald Byers:

“Experience. I’m the only candidate in this race for district attorney who has ever been a district attorney. I’ve also been prosecuting for 26 years, 27 come this July, and I’ve been and done an accounting for 11 years and been district attorney for three. One of the other opponents has never prosecuted a single case at all, and the other is their experiences that a decade plus, all in the system has significantly changed. Plus, I’ve been significantly involved in prosecution, bringing forward cases that resulted in major changes to New Mexico law, such as Marissa’s Law based on the prosecution I did of Dominic Akers for murder in Albuquerque in 2004.”

Michael Caine:

“I just want people to know that I am a very viable candidate. This is going to be a very important election for this county that I want people to know that they have a choice in November. We are doing very well in our internal polling. We are doing very well at the forum and we’re being very, I’m being very well received. I’m not an establishment kind of guy. I don’t go hang out at parties with the judges and the movers and shakers. And I don’t care about those people. All of my friends are blue collar for the most part. So I don’t have any problem with walking in and rolling up our sleeves and trying to fix that problem. I had a very good modeling of what the DA’s office should look like under Ms.. Martinez back when I worked there. I made very good notes. I have a lot of the contacts that I had even back then, and I believe I can reinvigorate that office and put it back into good working order.”

What issues do you believe the DA’s office is facing?

Fernando Macias:

“Well, the biggest issue is to properly prosecute all of the cases that need to be pursued. Unfortunately, the office has a history of having to dismiss many cases that should be filed and should be pursued. So the goal for anyone who becomes the district attorney is to really ensure that there aren’t dismissals of cases that we’re pursuing. All of the cases that are necessary, that we have the resources, the number of prosecutors, the budget, everything that is necessary in order to effectively prosecute the number of cases that should be prosecuted on a yearly basis.”

Ramona Martinez:

“Right now, there’s a shortage of staffing. I have throughout my campaign trail have pointed it out, pointed this out from the very beginning. I have given numbers and comparison so that people understand the lack of attorneys that we have in this office. So we are the second largest county in New Mexico. And in comparison, if you look at Albuquerque, that is we have about 60 felony attorneys in Santa Fe. So the biggest issue any of us are going to face is recruitment and retention, which I do have a plan to address head-on with regards to recruiting at the law school, which is just up the road. I also want to you add an undergrad as well. So actively recruiting and that means being present, going to the law schools yourself as a candidate, as a D.A., and also going to the other law schools, creating clerkship programs.”

Shaharazad Booth:

“Staffing has been a common thing that has been brought up. But it’s that lack of staffing that leads people to believe that the DA’s office is not doing anything. Frankly, they don’t have the manpower to do what they need to do. So when I was deciding to run, I reached out to experienced prosecutors who still live in this community, but they’ve decided to commute out to other areas because they don’t want to work for this office. Their experience, career prosecutors, six of them have given me a commitment to come back if I win that office. And so having that ability to not only they won a change with experienced prosecutors ready to take that seat, not only to come in with that, but to come in with the energy and the experience to recruit and to lobby Santa Fe in order to get more positions to build this office up.”

Gerald Byers:

“Improvement of New Mexico’s laws and how that is applied in the courts. As you can see, the New Mexico Supreme Court recently reversed itself by issuing an order that required courts to take a look at anybody who was in court on conditions of release. And they are arrested on a new felony that is directly opposite than the court ruling that came out concerning bail reform. I think that our court system is learning from that process, and I believe that our voice has been a significant part of that. And one of the other things is that, as I mentioned before, this border prosecution initiative started from the funding that we received from Senator Martin Heinrich’s office to enhance safety, public safety and border security. And that is exactly what we’ve been doing. There are two cases already that have been charged based upon this new initiative. That’s one of the things. And the other is finalizing the implementation of our prosecutor by Karpel software, which has facilitated our ability to receive discovery electronically instead of the old paper and file method. And it has really sped things up. And so as we move forward, of course, the issues of more funding for our positions and to grow the size of the office. Because the truth be known, it does need to grow. It does need to be increased.”

Michael Caine:

“Well, the first of all, there should be 30 to 35 district attorneys in that office. That’s what fully staffed looks like. And that’s what I was there from 2000 to 2004. I don’t think we ever went below 30. The office was divisionalized. We had violent crimes, white collar crimes, drug crimes, DWI, domestic violence. Each of these were segregated property crimes. These were segregated off. And certain attorneys just did those while they were working on those. We had a very good system of templating files. I’ve had it happen to me several times that I would give you an example. I was doing the drug crimes and one of the ADAs wouldn’t be there one day and they would hand me the phone, say, ‘Here, take this to trial tomorrow.’ You’re like at trial. But you knew when you opened it up with the documentation, it was in the file that it was ready to go. You knew what each witness wants, what each piece of evidence was, and basically you just had to follow the script. But that’s the level of preparation that you need right now. With them being so short staffed, there are three criminal district judges over here in Las Cruces. The way he’s got it now is there’s two attorneys set for each courtroom instead of it being individualized. So anything that comes through those two attorneys are stuck with, which means that a lot of times they’re stuck with trials that are six deep in front of one judge. So this is one of the reasons they’re faltering so badly.”

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