WITNESS RECANTS DETAILS OF CRACK BABY'S DEMISE

The state's key witness in the suspected homicide of a crack-addicted
newborn testified Monday that he lied when he told a Phoenix police
detective that his wife and stepdaughter were smoking crack cocaine around
the baby.

Solomon Butler, 53, testified during the first day of a three-day
preliminary hearing that he was angry at his wife and stepdaughter and
would have turned his mother in for smoking cocaine.

Thirteen times during the first hour of his testimony, Butler said he told
the detective about his wife and stepdaughter's cocaine habit out of "anger
and vindictiveness."

Butler's retreat from his statements to police are not expected to torpedo
the state's allegations that 10-day-old Anndreah Robertson died from
exposure to secondhand cocaine smoke, a theory being tested for the first
time by county prosecutors.

Maria Armijo, a Maricopa County deputy prosecutor, said Butler's
recantation "was expected," likening it to domestic violence victims who
change their stories when they fear a loved one will be prosecuted.

The prosecution's case relies on the findings of a Maricopa County medical
examiner who ruled Anndreah's death a homicide, saying her intestines
disintegrated from exposure to crack cocaine smoke after she was born.

Defense attorneys are relying on findings of two doctors who were part of a
state Department of Economic Security investigation into Anndreah's death
who have said it would be impossible for the baby to die from exposure to
secondhand crack cocaine smoke. They say the baby died from her mother's
admitted cocaine use throughout her pregnancy. Prenatal drug exposure is
not a crime in Arizona and other states.

Phoenix police Detective Anthony Jones interviewed Butler on Feb. 11, about
four months after Anndreah's death on Nov. 9.

Butler testified Monday that he implicated his wife during the interview
because he wanted to hurt her "like she hurt me."

He said Lillian Butler, 44, Anndreah's grandmother, left him a week after
the baby's death to be with her daughter Demitres Robertson, 23, the baby's
mother.

"At the time I was feeling forgotten about and would have said my mother
was smoking crack cocaine," Butler said. During his testimony, Butler said
his wife had not smoked crack in 18 months and that he never saw his
stepdaughter smoke dope.

Later, he acknowledged he had told Jones that he, his wife and stepdaughter
smoked crack in the days before Anndreah died but added, "That doesn't make
it true."

Lillian Butler, his wife of eight years, is charged with two counts of
child abuse in Anndreah's death. Demitres Robertson is charged with
first-degree murder and child abuse.

He testified in exchange for immunity from drug and murder charges but
could be charged with perjury if prosecutors determined he lied on the
witness stand.

At the end of the hearing, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Greg Martin
will determine if there is probable cause to bind the women over for trial.