District Attorney's Office Divisions
First Assistant - Christian Henricksen
Christian was born in San Antonio, Texas. He attended and graduated from James Madison High School, before entering Texas A&M University – College Station, where he graduated with a BA in History. After college, Christian worked as a high school social studies teacher in Victoria, Texas and Huntsville, Texas where he taught for a total of two years.
After two years, Christian applied for and was accepted into Louisiana State University Law School. He completed his studies there in 2004, receiving his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree. In 2005, he received admission into the Texas State Bar.
After graduating from law school, Christian began his legal career. He worked as a trial court prosecutor with the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office from 2005 to 2013, where he prosecuted both misdemeanor and felony cases and tried approximately 80 jury trials.
Upon leaving the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office in 2013, Christian opened his law practice, The Law Offices of Christian D. Henricksen, where he worked as a criminal defense attorney. Soon thereafter in 2015, Christian joined The Law Office of Joe D. Gonzales, where he continued his work as a criminal defense attorney. Collectively, between the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office and private practice, Christian has 15 years of experience of practicing criminal law.
Christian returned to The Bexar County District Attorney’s Office on January 1, 2019, serving as the Chief of Litigation, where he brings his knowledge and experience to assist in creating policies. Christian advocates for criminal justice reform and improving effectiveness and equity in prosecution.
ADMINISTRATION - JAMISSA JARMON
Jamissa Jarmon is the Chief of Administration at the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney’s Office. A veteran of the office, she has been a licensed attorney since 1997. In addition to her prior service as a prosecutor, she has also served as a defense attorney and a staff attorney for the Bexar County District Courts. She is a graduate of Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State) where she earned a Bachelor of Arts, with a major in Journalism and a minor in Business. After college, she chose to continue her education and received her Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from The University of Houston Law Center.
Jamissa is originally from Seguin, Texas. She is an accomplished athlete who ran track and played basketball while in high school. Her love of physical fitness continues as she has now competed in three triathlons and eight half-marathons. She is also certified scuba diver. In her free time, Jamissa is an avid reader and a fan of travel. She is married and has three canine kids.
Appellate - Mary Beth Welsh
Mary Beth Welsh is the Chief of Appeals for the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office. Mary Beth earned a B.S. in Education from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, a M.S. in Education from Baylor University in Waco, Texas and her J.D. from St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. Mary Beth began working at the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office during her second year of law school as a paid intern for the prosecutors assigned to the 175th Judicial District Court.
In 1992, Mary Beth was hired as an Assistant District Attorney for the Bexar County District Attorney’s office. In the fall of 1997, Mary Beth rotated to the appellate division and what was supposed to be a sixth month rotation has evolved into a 22 year “transition” from trial attorney to appellate attorney. Mary Beth has argued before the Texas Supreme Court, Court of Criminal Appeals, the Fourth Court of Appeals, and the Seventh Court of Appeals.
Mary Beth is licensed to practice law in Texas, in the Western District of Texas, and in the United States Supreme Court. For 12 years Mary Beth had the opportunity to teach Courts and Criminal Procedure, Legal Aspects of Law Enforcement, and Crime in America as an adjunct professor at San Antonio Community College. Prior to a career in law, Mary Beth taught high school and middle school and coached girls basketball, volleyball, soccer, track and field, and cross country.
Civil - Larry Roberson
Larry Roberson is Chief of the Civil Division where he and his Division represent Bexar County and county-level elected officials in all civil matters arising under both federal and state law. A cum laude graduate of St. Mary’s University School of Law, Larry is admitted to practice in all Texas courts and in the Western District of Texas, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Larry first began practicing law working for a large research and development corporation. He left the private sector to work as a staff attorney for the Eighth Court of Appeals sitting in El Paso, Texas. After leaving El Paso, Larry returned to San Antonio to work in the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney’s Office under then District Attorney Susan Reed. Larry has represented Bexar County in civil appeals in state and federal court, including an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. After spending approximately 12 years with the Office, Larry left for an in house counsel position but returned to serve in the administration of District Attorney Joe Gonzales.
In his spare time, Larry serves on the Board of Directors of Credit Human Federal Credit Union where he has spent several years working with the organization to develop strategies to bring financial health to underserved communities. Larry also sits as an appointed member of the Planning and Zoning Commission for the City of Castroville, Texas.
Criminal Investigation - Sean McCleskey
R. Sean McCleskey is the Chief Criminal Investigator of the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office. Prior to this position, Sean served as a Deputy with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office Intelligence Unit, coordinating the collection and dissemination of information related to gang activity, as well as serving in BCSO Reserve Unit, East Patrol Division.
Sean has also served as a Special Agent with the United States Secret Service, San Antonio Field Office, until his retirement in 2015. He was assigned to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force for approximately 3 years where he exclusively conducted investigations regarding potential terrorist activities in the United States. During his tenure with the Secret Service, he helped create and then served as the Group Leader of the South Texas Regional Task Force, a multi-agency unit, whose principal mission was to investigate organized groups who were involved with identity theft, financial and cybercrimes.
Sean has served as a special prosecutor with the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office, Public Integrity Unit, and was a faculty member in the Master of Science, Identity Management and Security Program, at The University of Texas at Austin. He concurrently served as the Director of Organizational Education and Measurement at UT’s Center for Identity. Sean has earned two Bachelor of Science Degrees in Political Science and Criminal Justice from Texas Christian University and his Juris Doctor from St. Mary’s University School of Law.
Family Justice Center Director - Crystal Chandler
Crystal Chandler is the Executive Director of the Bexar County Family Justice Center. Prior to taking on this role in January 2019, Crystal spent more than 20 years serving as a voice for victims of violence. She brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to this role having served as a judge, prosecutor, nonprofit co-founder, trainer, and criminal law professor.
As a judge of a criminal family violence court, Crystal worked daily to improve the legal system’s response to intimate partner and family violence cases. She carried out a firearm surrender program, spearheaded efforts to get judicially ordered bond conditions intended to protect victims accessible to local law enforcement officers, and implemented two specialized docket programs: “Young Adult Aggression Re-Direction” for offenders ages 17-24 and “Comprehensive Health and Alternative Treatments” for offenders suffering with mental health issues.
Recognizing that the effort to prevent violence requires more resources than law enforcement, Crystal is a founding member of a national anti-human trafficking nonprofit dedicated to educating and mobilizing the trucking industry in the fight against human trafficking. She also served as an adjunct criminal law professor at San Antonio College.
Family Violence - Angelica "Meli" Powers
Meli Powers is the Chief of the Family Violence Division of the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney’s Office. Ms. Powers holds a Juris Doctor degree from St. Mary’s University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Government Degree from The University of Texas at Austin. She began her legal career with the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office in 1999 as a Legal Intern in the Criminal Trial Division where she learned from and assisted a team of felony prosecutors. She was licensed to practice law in Texas in 2001.
From 2002 to 2017, Meli served Bexar County as an Assistant Criminal District Attorney. Since 2008, she has prosecuted domestic violence and child physical and sexual abuse cases. From 2017 to 2019, Powers was a Regional Attorney for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. She served three counties in the State of Texas where she represented the Department in cases involving the abuse and neglect of children.
Powers has been a speaker and trainer for the San Antonio Police Department on issues relating to domestic violence, child abuse, evidentiary issues and courtroom testimony. Ms. Powers has also been named in San Antonio Scene Best S.A. Lawyers and serves on numerous boards, commissions and task forces at the both the local and state level, including the Child-safe Board of Directors and Bexar County Child Fatality Review Team and the State Child Fatality Review Team.
Criminal Trial - JUANITA VASQUEZ-GARDNER
Juanita A. Vasquez-Gardner is the Felony Chief of the Criminal Trial Division for the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney. Juanita previously served as the Misdemeanor Chief of the Criminal Trial Division and the Chief Administrative Attorney under the prior District Attorney. She has also served as a Staff Attorney for the Criminal District Court judges in the Bexar County Criminal District Court Administration.
Juanita received her B.A. from the University of Texas at San Antonio and her J.D. degree from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law. Juanita began her legal career as an Assistant Criminal District Attorney for Bexar County, Texas, in 1989 and served in that capacity until 2000, during that time she conducted in excess of 100 jury trials.
In 2000, Juanita was appointed as the first Judge of the 399th District Court by then-Governor George W. Bush. During her 12-year tenure as a Judge, Juanita was the Chair of the 4th Administrative Judicial Region Local Selection Committee; the Chair of the Criminal Law and Procedure Committee of the San Antonio Bar Association; and the Chair of the Budget Committee for the Bexar County Juvenile Board. She was also a member of the Purchasing Agent Board Committee; the Criminal Courts and Rules Committee; and the Trial Courts Committee of the Bexar County Juvenile Board.
In 2003, Juanita was appointed by then-President George W. Bush to serve on the Board of Trustees for the Harry S Truman Scholarship Foundation. She has also served on the Boards of Trustees for the Daughters of Charity Services of San Antonio and the Bexar County Family Justice Center Foundation, and is a current Advisory Board member for the Bexar County Family Justice Center Foundation. Juanita was an original member of the State Bar Committee that authored four publications of “Texas Criminal Pattern Jury Charges” which is used throughout the state of Texas by criminal judges and practitioners.
Grand Jury and Intake - Emily Angulo
Emily Angulo has been an Assistant Criminal District Attorney with the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office since July of 1999. Emily graduated Magna Cum Laude from the St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas in May of 1997. Upon graduation, she returned home to Florida where she practiced as an Assistant Public Defender in Marion County, Florida. While there, she represented both juveniles and adults charged with crimes and helped to ensure they received due process and a fair trial that should be afforded every individual charged with a crime.
Continuing her call for public service, in July of 1999, Emily returned to San Antonio to begin her career as an Assistant Criminal District Attorney with the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office. During the past 15 years of service with the District Attorney’s Office, Emily has practiced before many judges in both the misdemeanor and felony criminal courts. She has represented the State of Texas in the prosecution of thousands of criminal cases ranging from DWI and assaults to Aggravated Robberies and Murders. During this time, she has continued in her goal to ensure fair trials to individuals charged with offenses. In the fall of 2013, she was one of two prosecutors on a trial team in the State of Texas v. Arturo Noriega, who prosecuted and secured the first Bexar County jury verdict of life on DWI Murder.
Emily is the mother of two athletically gifted boys and so she spends most of her free time at the baseball park or the track. Given her choice of destinations to travel, Emily would pick the mountains in North Carolina every time, where she can spend hours hiking to waterfalls and sifting through stream beds for small garnets. She even keeps a vial of them on her desk so that during the hectic hours of the work day, she can look over and remember the peace she feels sifting through the North Carolina streambeds.
Juvenile - Jane Davis
Jane Davis was named by Mr. Gonzales to serve as Chief of the Juvenile Section of the D.A.’s Office. Prior to becoming Chief of the Juvenile Section, Jane served as a prosecutor in Bexar County for 28 years, First Assistant to the County Attorney in Guadalupe County for 4 years, and as a defense attorney for 3 years. During her tenure as an assistant district attorney in Bexar County, she served in almost every section of the District Attorney’s Office. Approximately half of that time she was assigned to the juvenile division. She shares Mr. Gonzales’ vision for juvenile justice reform and is actively participating with local and national groups working toward lowering recidivism rates by implementing data driven strategies that are proving to be successful.
Jane’s interests other than work include her family (married with 2 kids), beekeeping, ranching, travel, pottery, theology, and leaning new, fun things.
Misdemeanor Trial - daniel rodriguez
Daniel Rodriguez is a native of San Antonio who graduated from Thomas Edison High School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Philosophy and English from Texas State University. Daniel worked in the private sector for several years before attending St. Mary’s University School of Law, where he earned his JD. He was licensed to practice law in November of 2005 and in 2006 began a career as an Assistant Criminal District Attorney for the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney’s Office. Daniel started as a misdemeanor prosecutor and left the District Attorney’s Office in 2017 as a felony prosecutor. From 2006 to 2017, he worked as a prosecutor in the misdemeanor trial division, the misdemeanor intake division, the felony family violence division, the felony intake division, and the felony trial division. He has tried cases as a prosecutor ranging from DWI, theft, and drug possession up to aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault of a child, and murder. Daniel left the District Attorney’s office in 2017 to open a private practice that focused primarily on criminal defense. He tried cases in his private practice ranging from assault, drug possession, and DWI up to aggravated robbery, sexual assault, manslaughter, and murder. He also represented clients charged with serious federal offenses in the Western District of Texas.
Daniel returned to the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney’s Office in January 2023 to serve as the Chief of the Misdemeanor Trial Division. His years of trial experience as a prosecutor and private attorney will be a valuable asset in assisting our new prosecutors in their careers with the District Attorney’s Office.