District Attorney defends actions of prosecutor disqualified from triple-murder case

District Attorney Jaime Esparza is defending the actions of Assistant District Attorney Denise Butterworth a day after a judge disqualified her from prosecuting a triple-murder suspect.

Luis Solis-Gonzalez is facing capital murder charges and a potential death sentence for the killing of 13-year-old Cassaundra Holt, her mother Marysol Saldivar, and Saldivar’s boyfriend, Eric Desantiago. Their bodies were found on May 31, 2012 inside a home in East El Paso. A 3-year-old boy witnessed the killings and Butterworth was present when detectives interviewed the child.

(Assistant D.A. Denise Butterworth)

Solis-Gonzalez’s defense attorney, Joe Spencer, argued that could give the prosecution an unfair advantage. “A prosecutor who is building his or her case has the ability to listen to what is being said and to manipulate and formulate the type of questions and answers during that interview,” Spencer said, “That’s a real danger when a prosecutor gets that involved in the investigative process. Police departments are trained to do that and they’re very well qualified to do that.”

Friday, Esparza spoke with ABC-7’s Darren Hunt. The district attorney said it is his office’s responsibility to advise law enforcement. “We do that to make sure the cases are investigated completely,” Esparza said. “Being at the scene is smart law enforcement and it’s smart prosecution. We are on duty 24/7 and we will go to the scene if necessary.”

Esparza said rosecutors across the state constantly advise law enforcement, police departments, and sheriff’s offices. “What we don’t do is become investigators. We offer suggestions, we answer their questions, we might pose questions to them, or we might ask them to look into certain areas, because we want the investigation to be complete,” he added.

Esparza said he plans to appeal the judge’s decision to recuse Butterworth. “The judge should be aware this issue has been addressed by the court of appeals before and the court has addressed this in our favor.”