Criminal defense trial lawyer and former Texas prosecutor. Seven years building cases for the State before defense practice. El Paso native — El Paso High School, UTEP, SMU Dedman School of Law.
Salah George Alhanna is a criminal defense trial lawyer at West Texas Trial Lawyers, PLLC and a former Texas prosecutor with seven years of prosecution experience. He is an El Paso native who grew up in the same courthouse district where he now defends the accused — a defense lawyer whose career has been spent inside the West Texas criminal justice system, first as the prosecutor filing the case and now as the defense attorney taking it apart.
Salah knows how the State charges, staffs, and tries cases because he did it for seven years. That experience shows in how he reads a file: where the case is thin, which witnesses won’t hold, which plea offers exist only because the prosecutor is worried about trial, and which motions actually change trajectory — motions to suppress, examining trials, and bond litigation among them.
Salah previously led the criminal defense practice of Alhanna Law Firm, PLLC, whose 4.9-star, 118-review Google Business Profile track record was built over years of dismissals, reductions, and trial work across El Paso and West Texas dockets. In 2026, that criminal defense practice transitioned to West Texas Trial Lawyers, with Salah joining founder Adam Setra — another former Texas prosecutor — to consolidate two former-prosecution careers under one firm. Those historic Alhanna reviews describe the same lawyer now practicing at West Texas Trial Lawyers and are disclosed transparently in the firm’s combined public review total.
El Paso High School — graduated from the same El Paso ISD system that feeds the county’s criminal dockets. University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) — undergraduate degree. Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law (Dallas) — Juris Doctor. SMU Dedman’s trial-advocacy tradition remains part of Salah’s courtroom style.
Licensed to practice law by the State Bar of Texas. Admitted before the state trial courts of Texas — county courts at law and district courts. Federal district enrollment is confirmed at engagement for the districts where the firm regularly appears; the firm’s federal practice covers Western District of Texas divisions including El Paso, San Antonio, Del Rio, Alpine, Midland-Odessa, and Pecos, with coordination into New Mexico matters as needed.
Combined with founder Adam Setra’s tenure as an El Paso County prosecutor (34th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, El Paso, 2023), West Texas Trial Lawyers is a firm built by two former Texas prosecutors — a structural, verifiable difference from a general-practice firm, a solo defense lawyer with no prosecution background, or a multi-city defense chain that rotates unfamiliar associates through West Texas cases.
That prosecution experience is not an abstraction. It is reading the offense report the way the intake prosecutor reads it; knowing which cases a District Attorney’s office may quietly no-bill or dismiss if the defense packet arrives before grand-jury presentment; recognizing plea offers that exist only because the State does not want to try the case; and knowing the magistrates, prosecutors, and judges who sit in the courts where Salah practices.
Salah’s practice spans the full Texas criminal docket — misdemeanor through first-degree felony, state and federal, English and Spanish caseloads. Core categories include DWI (including BAC ≥ 0.15, child passenger, and CDL matters); possession and manufacture/delivery of controlled substances; assault family violence and aggravated assault; theft and burglary; evading and resisting arrest; weapons offenses; fraud/forgery/deceptive business practice; injury to a child, elderly, or disabled person; federal narcotics and firearms filings; alien-smuggling and related Western District matters; federal detention hearings under 18 U.S.C. § 3142; pre-indictment / target-letter work; and crimmigration coordination for non-citizen clients. The firm does not appear in immigration court; it controls the criminal-side variables that determine whether an ICE detainer becomes a removal exposure.
The following categorical outcome tallies reflect Salah’s defense practice across El Paso and West Texas courts, including matters handled at Alhanna Law Firm, PLLC prior to its 2026 transition to West Texas Trial Lawyers. In total, Salah’s docket has produced 85+ documented dismissals across misdemeanor and felony charge categories. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes; every case depends on its own facts, the evidence, and the law that applies in that courtroom.
Multiple dismissals of DWI charges — first-time DWI, DWI second, DWI with BAC ≥ 0.15, and cases resolved through pretrial diversion or OCA dismissal after suppression litigation on the traffic stop, field sobriety exercises, and blood-draw warrant. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Dismissals of possession-of-a-controlled-substance filings across Texas penalty groups, including state-jail and third-degree felony exposure, often driven by motions to suppress attacking the search, seizure, or chain of custody. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Dismissals and probation-only resolutions of manufacture-and-delivery filings, including PG1 delivery < 1g and PG1 delivery ≥ 4g < 200g cases that ordinarily carry substantial state-prison exposure. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Multiple dismissals of possession-of-marijuana filings — POM < 2oz, POM in a drug-free zone, and pretrial-diversion dismissals across El Paso and West Texas dockets. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Dismissals of assault-family-violence, assault-causes-bodily-injury-family-member, and continuous-violence-against-the-family cases — charges that can carry firearms, immigration, and permanent family-violence consequences even without a conviction. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Dismissals of aggravated-assault-with-a-deadly-weapon filings — first- and second-degree felony charges — achieved through pre-indictment work and motion practice attacking the deadly-weapon allegation. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Dismissals across the Texas theft grading ladder — misdemeanor theft, state-jail-felony theft, and multi-count felony theft indictments, including cases resolved OCA. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Dismissals of burglary-of-a-building, burglary-of-a-habitation (first-degree felony), and burglary-of-vehicles filings, including deferred-disposition dismissals that preserved the client's record. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Dismissals of evading-arrest-in-a-motor-vehicle, evading-arrest-and-detention, and resist-arrest-search-or-transport filings across El Paso and West Texas jurisdictions. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Dismissals of unlawful-carrying-of-a-weapon (Texas Penal Code § 46.02) filings — the offense that regularly appears alongside drug and assault charges in traffic-stop arrests across West Texas. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Dismissals of forgery of a financial instrument, criminal simulation, deceptive business practice, and related white-collar filings — including cases resolved through pre-indictment negotiation before any indictment issued. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Dismissals of felony injury-to-a-child, injury-to-an-elderly-person, and injury-to-a-disabled-person filings — charges that can carry mandatory-reporter, licensing, and family-court consequences even before conviction. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Category tallies are drawn from firm-supplied bio materials and are not a promise of similar results in any other matter.
Primary state venues include: El Paso County (34th, 41st, 65th, 168th, 171st, 205th, 210th, 243rd, 346th, 383rd, 384th, 388th, 409th, 448th judicial districts, plus county courts at law); Ector County (Odessa); Midland County; Bexar County (San Antonio); Val Verde County (Del Rio). Federal matters are handled in the Western District of Texas across the firm’s active divisions, and in the U.S. District of New Mexico in coordination with the firm’s federal practice.
The firm’s Google Business Profile materials reflect an aggregate rating of 4.89 out of 5 across 147 reviews, disclosed as: 19 reviews on the West Texas Trial Lawyers El Paso office profile (4.8), 10 reviews on the West Texas Trial Lawyers San Antonio office profile (5.0), and 118 reviews on the Alhanna Law Firm, PLLC profile (4.9) — the profile Salah led before his practice transitioned to West Texas Trial Lawyers in 2026. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
“He was professional, knowledgeable, and genuinely cared about my case… kept me informed, and fought hard for the best possible outcome.”
Free consultation, available 24 hours a day, in English or Spanish — attorney-direct. El Paso principal office: 1005 North Mesa, El Paso, TX 79902 · (915) 279-0000. San Antonio regional office: 40 NE Interstate 410 Loop, Suite 100 OFC G10, San Antonio, TX 78216 · (210) 401-1000. Adam Setra, the firm’s founder, speaks Spanish directly with Spanish-speaking clients and families when end-to-end Spanish handling is requested.
Salah George Alhanna is licensed by the State Bar of Texas. Attorney advertising. No lawyer-client relationship is created by contact with this website or through initial consultation. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes; every case depends on its own facts and the law that applies in the courtroom where it is filed.