By Shannon Edmonds
TDCAA Executive Director in Austin
They say that everything is bigger in Texas, and that includes our conferences! I am pleased to report that our 2025 Annual Criminal & Civil Law Conference at Round Rock’s Kalahari Resort and Convention Center in September was our most-attended CLE event ever, with a final head count of 1,120 attendees and speakers. We also hosted the largest in-person Legislative Update on record with 606 people in attendance the day before the Annual Conference. As a certain someone might say: Those are yuge crowds!
We at TDCAA could not have reached these milestones without your support. Thank you for joining us and thank you also for your many constructive and appreciative evaluations of these CLE programs. On a personal note, I want to spotlight the TDCAA staff who pitched in to host these great events. We closed down TDCAA World Headquarters for the entire week for this all-hands-on-deck production, and your attendance and appreciation made it worth all the hard work and extra hours. Special thanks go out to Training Director Brian Klas, Meeting Planners LaToya Scott and Andie Peters, and the rest of our TDCAA team for knocking it out of the park!
Awards and recognitions
The Annual Conference provides us with an opportunity to recognize TDCAA members for their outstanding work. This year there was an added twist: For the first time, we presented those awards at our evening reception instead of at the opening of the course. (We found it worked really well, but let me know what you thought.) That reception was this year’s venue for celebrating the following award winners as selected by TDCAA’s Board of Directors.
State Bar Criminal Justice Section Prosecutor of the Year
Tonya Ahlschwede, 452nd Judicial District Attorney (Mason, Edwards, Kimble, McCulloch, and Menard Counties)
Tonya, who also chairs the board of the state’s Border Prosecution Unit (BPU), was given this award in recognition of her legal and legislative work on statewide border security issues. And as if that hot potato topic wasn’t enough to keep her busy, she also strung together an impressive collection of recent trial victories—including an arson conviction and long sentence for the person who burned down her courthouse a few years ago! Tonya was a worthy choice as Prosecutor of the Year, and it was a treat to have her local legislators and law enforcement officers at the reception to show their appreciation of her hard work.
Lone Star Prosecutor Award
Jacquelyn Johnson, First Assistant County & District Attorney, Aransas County
Jacquelyn Johnson was promoted to be the First Assistant in her office in 2024 and since then she has been delivering win after win in the courtroom, securing multiple convictions and maximum sentences for some of the worst offenders in her county. Her successes both in and out of the courtroom made her a perfect nominee for the Lone Star Award, which was created by the TDCAA Board specifically to recognize those prosecutors who distinguish themselves in their local courtrooms but whose work may otherwise go unnoticed throughout the state. Prosecutors like Jacquelyn would do what they do even if they were never recognized for their hard work, which makes it all the more special to be able to lift up such prosecutors to show them our association’s appreciation for a job well done. To Jacquelyn and others laboring in the trenches: We see you, and we are grateful for what you do every day!
Kepple Award
Mike West, Assistant Criminal District Attorney, Smith County
In 2024, the TDCAA Board created the Kepple Award in honor of retiring executive director Rob Kepple. This award honors recipients whose career accomplishments—like Rob’s—have left an indelible mark on the field of Texas criminal prosecution. This year’s winner was Mike West, the chief appellate prosecutor from Smith County who recently retired after a distinguished appellate law career that spanned multiple prosecutor’s offices over almost 40 years. Mike was recognized not only for personally working on thousands of appeals and writs over that time, but also for his willingness to share his accumulated legal wisdom with anyone who needed help. We wish him the best in retirement!
C. Chris Marshall Award
Glen Fitzmartin, Assistant Criminal District Attorney, Dallas County
TDCAA is known far and wide for the high quality of our legal training, and the C. Chris Marshall Award recognizes the best of the best among those who are called upon to train our members. The award is named in memory of former Tarrant County prosecutor C. Chris Marshall, a frequent TDCAA writer and trainer who was tragically killed in a courthouse shooting in 1992. This year’s Chris Marshall Award winner is Glen Fitzmartin, felony trial bureau chief in the Dallas County Criminal DA’s Office and current chair of TDCAA’s Training Committee. Glen has long been a fixture at our Prosecutor Trial Skills Courses, and over the years he has generously shared with TDCAA attendees the knowledge and skills gained from his work not only as a prosecutor, but also as a defense attorney and judge. We are fortunate to have him directing our training efforts this year, and he is thoroughly deserving on this recognition from his peers. Well done, Glen!
It’s a pleasure to get to single out our members for their professional excellence at a time when too many on social media would rather tear down the profession of prosecution. And with that in mind, if you look to this space of our journal in the spring, we will have more information on how you can nominate the worthy for recognition in 2026, including candidates for a new category of “rising stars” in each of TDCAA’s eight regions of the state.
More jobs well done
As we close out 2025, I’d like you to join me in thanking our association president, David Holmes, County Attorney in Hill County, for his support and leadership during this year of transition at TDCAA. Not only did David take office a year earlier than he originally planned, but he also had to on-board a new executive director (me!), which he did with patience and good humor. I am indebted to him for his leadership.
On January 1, 2026, David will transition into the role of TDCAA Board Chair—and boy howdy, does he have some big shoes to fill! Please join me in also thanking our outgoing board chair, Erleigh Wiley, CDA in Kaufman County, the next time you see her. She did some seriously heavy lifting for the association during her stint on the association leadership track—not least of all by overseeing the appointment of yours truly as executive director—and our association is on a firm foundation for the future thanks to her dedication and hard work.
But Erleigh is not the only person responsible for our continued growth and success who will soon be returning to their full-time day jobs. Other Board members whose terms end this year are Jessica Frazier, Asst. CDA in Comal County; Shane Deel, C&DA in Callahan County; Will Durham, CDA in Walker County; Jacob Putman, CDA in Smith County; and Dusty Boyd, DA in Coryell County. Everyone affiliated with TDCAA owes a debt of gratitude to these members of our leadership who have donated their time and talents to the continued success of our association.
Annual Business Meeting
Are you interested in serving in TDCAA’s leadership? The Association’s Annual Business Meeting will be held in conjunction with our Elected Prosecutor Conference at the Hyatt Regency on the Riverwalk in San Antonio on Wednesday, December 3, 2025. Part of that meeting’s agenda will include the election of replacements for the Board positions mentioned above. For information about that nominations process, the qualifications for serving on our Board, and any other Board-related issues, please call or email me. We are a member-driven professional association, and “member” appears first in that description for a good reason!