A Kenosha County judge said she will consider penalizing District Attorney Xavier Solis for repeatedly failing to turn over evidence on time during an ongoing murder trial, court records show.
The missteps are the latest in a pattern of missed deadlines by the Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office in serious cases, as previously reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. These include a homicide trial where Solis submitted filings more than a month late and a child sexual assault prosecution that was reopened after he missed a court deadline.
Solis, a former defense attorney, won the race for district attorney without any prior prosecutorial experience. Since taking office in January 2025, more than a dozen prosecutors have left the office.
The office is currently eight prosecutors short of what county supervisors say it needs.
Solis could not be immediately reached for comment April 16.
The case he is prosecuting involves Justin Tercek, 42, of Kenosha, who is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, burglary, criminal damage to property and mistreatment of animals causing death. According to radio station WGTD, Tercek is accused of stabbing Andrew Pfannkuche, 52, to death in February 2025.
Court minutes show the ongoing trial is being derailed by what Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Jodi Meier called “extremely unacceptable” conduct from the prosecution.
On April 14, the first day of testimony, the defense told the court that Solis handed over 156 items of evidence around noon, while trial was already underway, court records show. Meier sent jurors home early.
Both sides are generally required to share evidence and records well before trial begins.
The defense also said Solis had not turned over criminal background information on witnesses – records Meier had already ordered him to produce at an April 10 hearing, records show. Prosecutors eventually handed some records over, but the defense was left reviewing them over the lunch break while the trial continued.
Defense attorneys asked Meier to penalize Solis and pause the trial so the defense could review the materials, court records show.
The next day, April 15, the defense team again called for penalties against Solis after they received a disc of new autopsy photos just the afternoon before. According to court records, Meier said she would address the request to sanction Solis at the end of the trial.
The defense also asked the court to declare a mistrial, arguing that witnesses had offered continued hearsay, or secondhand information, despite earlier warnings from the judge.
Meier denied the request but warned Solis to be more careful with how his witnesses were testifying, records show.
The Tercek trial is the latest in a string of courtroom issue for Solis. By fall of his first year, 15 of the 19 prosecutors he inherited had left, the Journal Sentinel found.
Former prosecutors told the Journal Sentinel they left because Solis pushed them to do things they believed crossed ethical lines and did not listen when they raised concerns.
Solis has suggested the departures stem from the office’s high media profile and a statewide attorney shortage.
“Maybe some people just don’t like me, don’t want to work for me,” Solis said at an April 1 meeting of county supervisors. “Or maybe they just can’t hack the workload.”
At that same meeting, Solis said his office was making progress on its backlog of cases but said he did not have specific numbers to back that up. He also said his office currently has 13 prosecutors, eight fewer than the 21 that county supervisors say it needs.
The Tercek case is not the first time a judge has considered sanctioning Solis.
In February, Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge David Hughes sanctioned Solis and dismissed 74 charges in a theft case after finding that a court filing Solis submitted relied on undisclosed artificial intelligence and contained made-up legal citations.
Quinn Clark is a Public Investigator reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be emailed at QClark@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Judge calls out Kenosha DA for ‘unacceptable’ missed deadlines in murder trial
Reporting by Quinn Clark, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
