The saga of Jorge Oscar Sanchez Vasquez’s voting trial continues, even though he was found guilty and was scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday.

On Dec. 2, 2025, he was found guilty of first-degree election misconduct, a class D felony, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $7,500 fine.

On Jan. 1, Sanchez Vasquez’s attorney, Jennifer Weaver, filed a motion for a new trial and an arrest of judgment. According to her motion, the jury’s verdict of guilty to first-degree election misconduct was contrary to law or the evidence. It states the court failed to properly instruct the jury, and failed in providing a speedy trial by granting not dismiss the case when it was not brought to court within one year of Sanchez Vasquez’s arraignment.

Assistant Attorney General Keisha Cretsinger filed a motion resisting the request on Jan. 9, stating that no facts support a new trial or arresting Sanchez Vasquez’s judgment. Cretsinger wrote that evidence proved Sanchez Vasquez, 43, drove his vehicle to the voting site, walked in, filled out a voter registration form and cast a ballot. Even though no witnesses could confirm seeing him placing a ballot into the voting machine, the circumstantial evidence states otherwise, as the ballots were tallied and none were blank.

The matter of Sanchez Vasquez not being given a speedy trial was already decided by the court in November. Billy Mallory, Sanchez Vasquez’s attorney at the time, filed a motion to dismiss the case entirely as the trial had not begun by Oct. 14, 2025, one year after his arraignment.

District Associate Judge Kathryn Austin denied the motion, stating the defense was misusing the deadline, which is to protect defendants from unnecessary delays caused by the state.

“It was never designed to be twisted into a tactical weapon whereby a defendant may seek repeated delays and then attempt to exploit those very delays to demand dismissal,” Austin wrote in her response to the dismissal request.

Sanchez Vasquez’s trial was supposed to begin Oct. 14 and then Nov. 3, but both times the defense requested continuances.

Almost two weeks after Mallory filed the dismissal request, he removed himself as counsel, stating there was a breakdown in the attorney-client relationship.

A hearing on Weaver’s motion for a new trial and an arrest of judgment is scheduled for Feb. 20.

——-

Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.