What to Know Today

DA in charge of 2019 El Paso Walmart mass shooting case resigns. Since taking office in 2021, Yvonne Rosales has faced accusations of incompetence and misconduct, The Texas Tribune reports — not to mention allegations that a private attorney who has represented Rosales impersonated and intimidated relatives of the mass shooting victims. Under the first-term DA, judges have thrown out nearly 1,000 criminal cases this year because of missed legal deadlines. Rosales submitted her resignation effective December 14, ahead of an effort to remove her from office.

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Elsewhere in Texas: Uvalde victim’s family files wide-ranging lawsuit against Daniel Defense, gun store, law enforcement. The lawsuit by the family of Eliahna Torres, a fourth-grader killed at Robb Elementary, names almost two dozen entities and people, including the city, the school district, and individual law enforcement officers. The suit alleges negligent marketing by gun manufacturer Daniel Defense, CNN reports, and negligent transfer and sale by gun store Oasis Outback.

Buffalo shooter pleads guilty to domestic terrorism motivated by hate. The gunman, who killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in May, will automatically receive a life in prison without parole on 15 state charges. He still faces federal hate crime charges, The Buffalo News reports, and the Justice Department hasn’t said if it will pursue the death penalty.

San Diego City Attorney’s Office obtains 1,000th gun violence restraining order since 2018. Officials estimate that, over the last five years, more than 50 GVROs have removed firearms from someone who may have otherwise committed a mass casualty incident, The San Diego Tribune reports. The outlier: Though red flag laws enjoy relative popularity, The Trace’s Alain Stephens wrote in 2019, many municipalities don’t use them very often. San Diego is the exception to the rule — and that’s largely because of City Attorney Mara Elliott, whose office files more GVROs than any other agency in the state.

Stewart Rhodes found guilty of seditious conspiracy. A federal jury convicted the Oath Keepers founder in connection with the Capitol insurrection, NBC News reports. Rhodes was on trial alongside four other members of the militant group, only one of whom was also found guilty of the same charge.

Data Point

20 years — the maximum prison sentence for a seditious conspiracy conviction. [Insider]

Sunny Sone
Sunny is in charge of our newsletters, leading the growth of existing products and dreaming up new ones. They previously worked as a copy editor at The Intercept and as digital editor for the Texas Observer, and co-published a web-only magazine under the Brick House media cooperative. Sunny has covered topics ranging from the Texas funeral industry to the life of visionary composer Pauline Oliveros. They hold a degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.