Former Phoenix detective, wife released amid pause in child murder trial over evidence issues

GOODYEAR, Ariz. - A major West Valley child murder case is at risk of being thrown out after issues with tracking the evidence. A former Phoenix police detective and his wife were released on March 23 after a recess was called in their child murder case over evidence issues. 

The backstory:

Germayne Cunningham's daughter Sanaa lived with her father and stepmother Lisa Cunningham. In 2017, Sanaa was just seven years old when she was rushed to Phoenix Children's Hospital and soon died. Her autopsy found a long list of physical injuries from alleged abuse.

Medical records state that sepsis and cardiac arrest led to her death, after a year of rapid decline. Her parents took her to five different doctors who diagnosed her with unspecified schizophrenia spectrum disorder, saying she self-harmed, had issues eating, and was prescribed a list of medications. The state claims the Cunningham's used home remedies over doctor's recommendations for inpatient care.

Photos from three months before her death show 7-year-old Sanaa locked in a laundry room, naked with only a plastic lawn chair. The Cunningham's taped gloves to her hands and forced her to wear goggles. Additional photos show Sanaa lying naked on a pile of trash, malnourished and frail. 

The two were charged with 11 counts of child abuse and first-degree murder. 

What we know:

But last week, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge paused the trial after six months due to evidence tracking issues by Goodyear Police.

"I do realize that these are incredibly serious cases. But weighing all that at this point, I am going to release the defendants on pretrial services with electronic monitoring," the judge said. "There were violations from property and evidence going back to the inception of this case. Goodyear knew about it. And so they have an obligation to tell the county attorney about it because it's exculpatory evidence or it's grading material."

The Cunningham defense team is making requests for the department's documents and email communications—which the prosecution says are too expansive.

"We can't do a broad search and send 50,000 emails to the defense, because there's some stuff in there that we cannot produce that have to be redacted. There are statutes about victims in other cases," the prosecution said.

What's next:

As the discovery period continues on a case nearly a decade in the making, the judge signaled the earliest the jury will return is next month.

"We'll tell them for now. April 6 is the earliest they'll be back and we'll give them updates as we know," the judge said. 

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office did not comment.