Judge Lizarraga Admonished for Secret Murder Trial Talks

What Happened at Trial

Marcos Lizarraga has served as judge of the 168th District Court in El Paso since 2014. In May 2019, he presided over the murder trial of Moises Galvan, who was charged with fatally shooting Rogelio “RJ” Franco and with aggravated assault of David Ortega outside a since-closed bar called BarFly in January 2017.

Over three weeks in May and June 2019, the Commission found, Lizarraga held a series of private conferences about the case with lawyers from only one side at a time, conduct the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct calls an ex parte communication. On May 17, he met privately with defense counsel Francisco Macias to discuss the relevance of testimony Macias did not want to preview for the State. On May 28, he met privately with Macias again, this time about an allegation that a lawyer for the victim’s family had approached a defense witness’s significant other. Later that same day, he met with two assistant district attorneys, without the defense present, about that same witness-tampering allegation. On June 1, he met privately with Macias a fourth time, about whether a prosecution witness could invoke the Fifth Amendment.

During that fourth conference, Macias told Lizarraga on the record that he wanted to meet privately so he would not “get in a fight with these two women,” referring to the prosecutors. Lizarraga told him, “That’s not a reason to ex parte.” When the Commission later asked him about the pattern, Lizarraga acknowledged holding the meetings and said he believed they were justified under a 2018 Fourth Court of Appeals opinion, Ex Parte Miguel Martinez, which he described as approving “effective” ex parte conferences. The Commission was not persuaded, finding that Canon 3B(8) of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct squarely prohibits a judge from considering ex parte communications about the merits of a pending case, regardless of which side requests them.

The Four Private Conversations

THE DISCIPLINE LADDER (TEXAS)

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct issues sanctions, in order of severity, as admonitions, warnings, reprimands, and censures, either privately (confidential) or publicly (on the record). A public admonition, the sanction here, is the least severe sanction the Commission can issue on the public record. Removal and involuntary suspension are a different track entirely: those require a separate Review Tribunal or the Texas Supreme Court, not the Commission acting alone.

From Possible Removal to One Admonition

The ex parte conferences were only part of the story that reached the Commission. The Galvan trial ended in a mistrial in June 2019 after Lizarraga found that a prosecutor had asked an improper question, a ruling the district attorney’s office publicly disputed. Within days, 21 complaints were filed against Lizarraga, and they went well beyond the private conferences: they accused him of bias against the prosecution, an improper relationship with the defense, and an in-chambers hearing that should not have happened. Court records reviewed by El Paso reporters showed the complaints also questioned why Lizarraga had appointed defense counsel Macias, a past donor to his campaign, outside the county’s normal public-defender rotation, and why Macias and a second attorney were ultimately paid more than the standard rate for indigent defense.

The Commission opened formal proceedings, and by early 2022 local coverage was reporting that Lizarraga could face removal from the bench, with an additional allegation that he had not cooperated with the investigation itself. In March 2022, a visiting judge granted the State’s motion to recuse Lizarraga from Galvan’s retrial altogether. Galvan was eventually retried before a different judge and convicted in 2023, drawing a 55-year sentence.

Three years after that recusal, the Commission’s public order addressed none of the bias, appointment, or non-cooperation allegations directly. It consolidated 22 case numbers, most dating to the original 2019 complaints, into a single finding limited to the ex parte conferences, and imposed a public admonition, the mildest sanction the Commission can put on the public record. What began as a case publicly described as a possible removal ended, six years later, one rung above the bottom of Texas’s discipline ladder.

The Rule He Broke

How It Played in the Press

El Paso’s television and digital outlets followed this one for years, not just at the sanction. KVIA, KFOX14/CBS4, and KTSM all covered the 2019 mistrial, the 21 original complaints, the 2022 reporting that Lizarraga could face removal, and his recusal from the retrial. The Moises Galvan case was later the subject of a true-crime podcast episode. When the admonition itself finally issued in 2025, CBS4 and the judicial-accountability site AbusiveDiscretion.com both covered it, and it followed Lizarraga directly into his next campaign: El Paso Matters raised the admonition twice while covering his run for County Court at Law No. 4 in the 2026 Democratic primary.

Where Is He Now?

Lizarraga did not seek re-election to the 168th District Court, choosing instead to run in the March 2026 Democratic primary for El Paso County Court at Law No. 4, a misdemeanor court. His opponent Eunice Reyes, a municipal and jail magistrate judge, won the seat outright with more than 52 percent of the vote, avoiding a runoff; Lizarraga finished second with about 34 percent. His current term on the 168th District Court ends December 31, 2026. Moises Galvan, whose trial set the whole case in motion, remains in prison serving the 55-year sentence he received after his 2023 retrial.

Sources

PRIMARY SOURCE

• State Commission on Judicial Conduct, Public Admonition, In the Matter of the Hon. Marcos Lizarraga, CJC Nos. 19-1353 et al., issued April 11, 2025. scjc.texas.gov

NEWS COVERAGE

• CBS4/KFOX14: El Paso judge publicly admonished over improper meetings in criminal case. cbs4local.com
• KFOX14 Investigates: State Commission on Judicial Conduct in litigation with judge over handling of Galvan case. kfoxtv.com
• KTSM: El Paso judge removed from murder re-trial. ktsm.com
• KVIA: Appeals court denies motion to dismiss murder indictment of El Paso man. kvia.com
• El Paso Matters: Primary election results, El Paso Texas, March 2026 (judicial races). elpasomatters.org
• El Paso Matters: Conduct concerns surface among El Paso County Courts at Law judicial candidates. elpasomatters.org
• com: Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct Admonishes Judge Marcos Lizarraga for Improper Ex Parte Communications. abusivediscretion.com

REFERENCE

• State Commission on Judicial Conduct: Public Sanctions, Fiscal Year 2025. scjc.texas.gov
• Texas Bar Journal (June 2025): Disciplinary Actions, State Bar of Texas. texasbar.com
• Ballotpedia: Marcos Lizarraga. ballotpedia.org

This post summarizes public judicial-discipline records and news reporting for general informational purposes. It is not legal advice.