Nearly nine years after four people were killed in Casa Grande, Pinal County prosecutors and judges were barred from involvement in the death-penalty cases against the two men accused in the killings after lawsuits and accusations of misconduct were brought against them.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Patricia Starr, who was assigned to the Pinal County cases as a visiting judge, issued the ruling Aug. 12. Through her ruling, she disqualified the entire Pinal County Attorney's Office from prosecuting Alec Xavier Perez and Rodney Ortiz Jr.
She also barred Pinal County Superior Court from hearing the cases, finding that a years-long tangle involving Perez's former defense lawyer, civil lawsuits and questions about conflicts could make the court cases appear unfair.
Starr stressed that she was not finding misconduct by prosecutors, judges or any other party.
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Still, she wrote that the “only workable solution” was for another county attorney's office to take over the prosecution. Her order also removed Pinal County Superior Court from the cases, which requires the appointment of a new judge from another county.
Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller said in a statement that his office planned to seek a stay of Starr's ruling.
“I am aware of the court’s ruling in the Alec Perez and Rodney Ortiz capital cases. I have already requested a stay of the proceedings, which will be heard this week, pending a petition for special action before the Arizona Court of Appeals,” Miller wrote.
If the judge's ruling stands, it was not clear as of Aug. 17 who would prosecute or judge the cases.
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office told The Arizona Republic that it had not been contacted about taking over or reviewing the prosecutions. The Arizona Attorney General's Office also said it was not contacted about taking the cases.
Why Pinal County prosecutors were removed from death penalty case
Much of the problem outlined in Starr's ruling centers on Matthew Long, a former Pinal County prosecutor who was appointed to represent Perez after his arrest in 2017.
Prosecutors announced that year that they would seek the death penalty for both men.
But Long represented Perez for more than seven years without the legal qualifications required to serve as lead attorney in a capital case, Starr found.
The requirements include five years of Arizona criminal-litigation experience, serving as lead counsel in at least nine completed felony jury trials and working as lead or co-counsel in at least one capital jury trial.
An Arizona Supreme Court order allowed Long to work on a capital case in 2015, but only if he was associated with a lawyer who met the requirements to serve as lead counsel.
That did not happen, according to Starr.
Prosecutors eventually raised concerns themselves.
In December 2024, prosecutors asked the court to appoint a qualified lawyer to work with Long.
Starr wrote that prosecutors made the request because “they had concerns about Long’s competence to serve as lead counsel in a capital case.”
By then, Long had represented Perez for more than seven years. He was removed from the case.
Perez is now represented by attorneys Jason Tyler Gronski and Rebecca L. Felmly.
Ortiz is represented by Jamie Sparks and James Soslowsky. Starr did not identify similar problems with Ortiz’s defense team. But she found the two cases were too closely intertwined to separate the conflict concerns, writing that they shared many of the same witnesses, participants and facts.
One of the victims' relatives later sued Pinal County and others, claiming that the delays caused by the issues of Perez's representation violated rights guaranteed to crime victims.
Another lawsuit involving a separate Pinal County prosecution also raised misconduct allegations involving Long and county prosecutors. Long separately filed a notice of claim tied to his removal as Perez’s attorney, naming Pinal County, the state and the judge who removed him from the case.
Starr said the two lawsuits and Long's separate notice of claim were a large part of her concerns.
She wrote that the resulting “possibility of public suspicion is great” and that assigning the cases to different prosecutors inside the same office would not fix that problem.
She had the same concerns about the Pinal County bench.
The question was not whether a Pinal judge had done anything wrong, she wrote, but whether an outside observer who knew the circumstances of the cases could reasonably doubt that justice would be done.
“Justice must not just be fair, but appear to be fair,” she wrote.
What are Perez and Ortiz accused of?
Perez and Ortiz were arrested after four people were found dead in a Casa Grande residence Oct. 5, 2017.
The victims were Justin Allen Yates, Jose Martin Aguilera, Connie Carrera, and Crysta Proctor. Police described the killings as part of a domestic disturbance call. Proctor was Perez’s estranged wife, and police records showed a history of domestic violence in the relationship.
A Pinal County grand jury later charged Perez and Ortiz with four counts each of premeditated first-degree murder.
Perez's case also includes charges of first-degree burglary and disorderly conduct involving a weapon, court records show.
What happens to the murder cases now?
The change in prosecutors does not end either prosecution.
Starr wrote that both men still must be brought to trial under Arizona's speedy-trial rules. She identified June 2, 2027, as the last day Ortiz can start, and Sept 9, 2027, for Perez. Missing a speedy-trial deadline can result in dismissal of the case.
She rejected prosecutors' argument that removing the office could cause another significant delay. She believes that a new prosecutor could be ready by those last days already set.
Whoever takes over will also have to rule on a motion to dismiss in Perez’s case. Starr’s ruling does not describe the grounds for that motion.
Starr's order says that the motion filed in August 2025 has been put on hold and must now be decided by the new judge.
