Gerald Byers Bio

A Reputable State Attorney You Can Count On

Gerald M. Byers currently serves as the District Attorney for the Third Judicial District in Doña Ana County, New Mexico: the second largest District Attorney’s Office in the state. Gerald is a career prosecutor with over 23 years of experience prosecuting cases ranging from DWI to Capital Murder.

Gerald Byers is the son of a career U. S. Air Force NCO and graduated from High School in Wichita Falls, Texas in 1976. He received an appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1980 and received his Naval Officer’s Commission. He was later assigned to a surface combatant unit and deployed as a member of the Multinational Peacekeeping Force in Beirut, Lebanon from 1983 to 1984. In coordination with other units of that force, including the battleship USS New Jersey, Gerald participated in the evacuation of American noncombatants from Beirut, Lebanon.

Gerald’s Legal Experience

Started when he supervised the Military Police Division at Naval Air Station Chase Field, Beeville, Texas in 1989. During that assignment, Gerald also earned a Master of Arts in Management and Business. Additionally, he assisted the U. S. Secret Service and provided support for President George H. W. Bush’s arrival, motorcade, departure, and White House traveling support equipment at the same time that the U.S. military was engaged in Operation Just Cause in Panama.

Honorably discharged from the U. S. Navy in 1992, Gerald entered the University of New Mexico School of Law. After receiving his Juris Doctor degree in 1995, Gerald began his prosecuting career as an Assistant District Attorney in Gallup, New Mexico.

  • In May 2000, Gerald accepted a position as a juvenile prosecutor in the Albuquerque District Attorney’s Office prosecuting misdemeanor and felony level juvenile offenses.
  • In late 2000, he was appointed to the Albuquerque District Attorney’s Office’s Violent Crimes Division where he successfully prosecuted many (Project Safe Neighborhoods) gun crime cases and high-profile murder cases including the nationally infamous Sunshine Theater murder case, which involved the tragic death of a teenage girl at the hands of a homicidal sexual sociopath.
  • In 2005, Gerald volunteered for an assignment in the Albuquerque DA’s Gang Crimes Division, gaining valuable experience in handling multiple co-defendant cases.
  • Gerald became a licensed member of the Texas bar in 2006 and moved to Amarillo Texas, prosecuting felony adult, and child sex crimes, narcotics, and violent crime cases.
  • Returning to New Mexico in 2008, Gerald prosecuted public corruption, vehicular homicide, and human and narcotics trafficking cases as a Deputy District Attorney in Lordsburg, NM.
  • In 2010, Gerald was appointed Chief Deputy District Attorney in the Sixth Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Deming, New Mexico. He effectively managed office operations, personnel training, and facilities maintenance while maintaining an operational caseload.
  • Gerald was awarded Sixth Judicial District’s Outstanding Prosecutor of the Year Award in Spring 2011.
  • Gerald joined the Third Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Las Cruces, New Mexico as a Deputy District Attorney in 2013. He was appointed Chief Deputy District Attorney in 2017. As Chief Deputy, he supervised 16 attorneys, 49 staff members, and a multimillion-dollar operating budget. He routinely coordinated with all local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and personally responds to homicide crime scenes and officer-involved shooting incidents providing technical legal guidance to police detectives and valuable training to developing prosecutors.
  • Gerald has personally handled or directed the prosecution of some of the district’s most notorious criminal defendants such as Dominic Montoya, Corey Franklin, and Jesse Hanes (who murdered Hatch police officer José Chavez).
  • In April 2019, Gerald received the New Mexico Administrative Office of the District Attorneys Prosecutor of the Year award.

Gerald and His Wife

Of 37 years Jackie Perez Byers have two daughters and six grandchildren. They are active members of St. Genevieve Roman Catholic Church, where he is a liturgical reader and Parish Council member and she is a Eucharistic minister. In his spare time, he enjoys the shooting sports and playing with their three dogs.