Police: Husband of former county attorney shoots 2, ends own life on Christmas Eve

Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this article listed an incorrect location for the shooting deaths.

A mother and daughter were dead after being shot at a holiday gathering in Phoenix by the husband of late Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel.

David DeNitto, 47, fatally shot the two women before shooting himself, Phoenix police said.

Officers were called to the house near the 5700 block of North Second Avenue at about 11:30 p.m. and found two women with gunshot wounds.

Property records show DeNitto and former Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel, who died in April 2022, owned a home in that block. DeNitto and Adel were married and had two sons.

Cynthia Domini, 83, and her daughter Maryalice Cash, 47, were taken to a hospital, where they were pronounced dead.

Cash and DeNitto were in a relationship, according to "early information," police said.

DeNitto was dead when they arrived at the house, police said.

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, Adel's successor, confirmed the identity of the victims in a Monday news release.

"It is impossible to comprehend a tragedy such as this. Words cannot adequately express the flood of sorrow. I ask the community to join me in praying for the families affected and, most especially, Allister's children. I also ask that the community surround the families with love, kindness, and a respect for the need for privacy," Mitchell said.

Who was Allister Adel?

Allister Adel served as Maricopa County attorney from October 2019 until March 2022.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors appointed Adel as acting county attorney in October 2019 to replace Bill Montgomery, whom then-Gov. Doug Ducey named to a seat on the Arizona Supreme Court.

She was the first woman to hold that position, and then the first to be elected to the office when she won in November 2020.

She updated pretrial diversion programs, created a prosecution integrity unit, changed plea policies and created community advisory boards. She also fired Juan Martinez, the office’s storied death penalty prosecutor who was accused of sexual harassment and misconduct.

Adel’s office drew criticism when her office charged 15 Black Lives Matter protesters arrested in 2020 as gang members. The charges later were dropped and resulted in more than $100 million in legal claims against the county.

Near the end of her tenure in March 2022, Adel’s office was forced to drop 180 criminal cases after it failed to file drunken driving, domestic violence, assault and criminal damage cases for more than a year.

Adel entered a rehabilitation facility in August 2021 for anxiety, alcohol abuse and an eating disorder.

Concerns related to the treatment she sought in rehab were echoed again in a February 2022 letter from five Maricopa County Attorney’s Office prosecutors who called for Adel’s resignation.

Adel resigned shortly after the discovery of the 180 criminal cases. Adel was hospitalized on her final day in office, March 25, 2022.

Six weeks later, Adel died after what her late husband cited as “health complications.”

“This May we would have 20 years of marriage. My family and I are utterly heartbroken by this unimaginable loss. We are so very proud to call Allister wife and mom,” said her husband, David DeNitto, at the time.

Republic reporter Robert Anglen contributed to this article.

Reach the reporter at nicholas.sullivan@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Police: Husband of former county attorney kills 2 before ending life