Today we’d like to introduce you to Carlos Garcia.
Hi Carlos, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
When I was in the 6th grade my band director suggested that I should be a lawyer, so that is where I got the idea. I graduated high school in Rio Grande City and came to UT Austin.
After college, I became an admissions counselor for UT, then went to law school a couple of years later.
I am a criminal defense attorney. I started practicing in 1989 in Starr County as an assistant district attorney, then came to Austin to work for the district attorney here. I went into private practice in January 1995.
A few years later I was appointed to a capital murder case as a second chair. When lead counsel developed a conflict of interest, I moved up to lead counsel. Carlos Barrera and I tried the case and through I believe divine intervention, managed to secure a life sentence for our serial killer client, Martin Gonzalez-Escamilla (2000) who was facing the death penalty; a month later, again as lead counsel, Greg Zaney and I defended Arthur Keith Jackson, and gained an acquittal. Keith was an innocent man facing the death penalty (2000).
In 2001 I was appointed as lead counsel to defend Michael Scott, one of the defendants in the infamous Yogurt Shop case; a year later, in 2002, we went to trial and although we lost, we won a life sentence. Mike was facing the death penalty. That case was reversed in 2007, and after new DNA was found that didn’t match any of the suspects, his and the remaining defendant’s cases were dismissed. Recently, in 2025, Austin police determined who the real killer was.
I mention those cases because I have had an odd career. Of the three death penalty cases, two of the men were falsely accused. Also, my family and I have paid a heavy price for doing capital work. When you do capital work, especially if you have to prepare for long trials, your business goes in the toilet because you can’t do anything else (if you want to do it right). I have had to restart my practice twice because of the Yogurt Shop case, and the long hours I spent working, away from my wife and kids, I don’t get back.
Between 1995 and the present I have been primarily a trial lawyer trying serious felony cases, my last being a few months back — an acquittal on a sexual assault case.
For about 10 years after those cases, I was appointed to many capital murder cases. All settled with plea bargains, which is the objective, since in most cases, the person committed the crime. In 2010 I left private practice to work for a death penalty non-profit resource group, Texas Defender Service, and I worked teaching and consulting with lawyers defending clients facing the death penalty.
In 2014 I went back to private practice. In 2020, after trying an non-death penalty capital case, I had had enough of gruesome photographs, and left the practice of law to teach at Akins High School. I taught law for four years and came back to the practice of law in 2024.
Most of my practice are felonies and serious cases, and I am getting back to teaching other lawyers in Continuing Legal Education seminars. Aside from criminal law, I am the chair of the Travis County Sheriff Civil Service Commission.
Last and most important, we have four kids between us, and 5 grandkids! Family matters most.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Upbringing. I grew up with my family around literally me, parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, working at our gas station. I could not have asked for a better upbringing. My dad taught me not to ever take crap from anyone, and that lesson formed my attitude in the courtroom years later. To win, you gotta fight.
UT, 1980-1984. I struggled at first, not knowing how to study and manage time, but a mentor at student services helped me figure it out. Thank you, Rene Gonzalez!
Admissions Counselor, 1984-1986. Prejudice and racism. Dealing with a racist administrator who asked if I wanted to be the Mexican Moses because I wanted to develop ways of getting more Hispanics to enroll at UT. It was a constant battle with him and another regarding minority recruitment. That was what I had been hired to do.
Law School. It took a while to figure out the system; I didn’t quite understand what I was doing.
Assistant DA, Starr County. I had a great boss, but it was demoralizing to see several public officials, most whom I knew, get busted for dealing drugs. Fed the stereotype of my hometown and home county, that our county was either welfare recipents or drug dealers living in mansions. It was a great experience, though. Some of the best trial lawyers I have ever known practiced in those courtrooms.
Assistant DA. Travis County. Great experience. Tried about 15 case that first year in the child abuse unit. Eye-opening, and learned that those kinds of cases pose. in my viewe, a higher risk of false or mistaken accusations.
Criminal Defense. 1995-1999. It took about 5 year of practice for things to finally start slowing down in the courtroom, understanding the rules of evidence and procedure, kind of like a rookie quarterback learning the system until all of a sudden, he gets. it.
Criminal Defense. 2000-2002. Capital work. The pressure of defending a human life is unlike anything I have ever felt–stress, muscles tensed always in my neck, worry– a few months ago, I went to a capital seminar on jury selection. We have a specific method of picking jurors in DP cases; I had to leave the seminar one afternoon because I started getting flashbacks of jury selection and interviewing jurors–a panic attack. Never had that before.
Criminal Defense, General. Most of us do court-appointed work. 1) There is the misconception that because we are court-appointed, we dont’ work as hard for our clients. 2) the increasingly “your work for me” attitude of court-appointed client. Rather than gratitude, you get too many persons who feel they are entitled to mistreat their court-appointed lawyer like we are some sort of punching bag.
Teaching, 2020-2024. Teachers are underpaid and underappreciated, and constantly under attack by those in control in state government whose objective is to starve public education to death–Abbot and the entire Republican contingent in the House and Senate, not to mention, rewrite and censor history and cut down the ability of professors and teachers to teach and of students to think critically. Can’t teach Plato? Really?
Overall observations. Our systems, education, criminal justice, mental health services, are overloaded and underfunded, I believe, by design. If it doesn’t make a profit, it’s not worth the effort, it appears. At the federal level, you have an administration that has weaponized the Department of justice to seek out enemies of the administration, is blatantly violating the rights of person seeking immigration relief, and trampling on the Constitution.
What were you like growing up?
I grew up in Rio Grande City, Texas, a border town. I read a lot. My nickname was “Computer” and I was voted biggest bookworm. I was grateful for the family around me; but for my parents and what they taught us, none of us, my siblings included, would be here. They taught us to work hard. I liked to read.
Pricing:
- Depends on the case and the client’s objective.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://carlosgarcialaw.com/
