DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton says he plans to contest the contempt of court order issued this week against one of his assistant district attorneys, an order putting the ADA in jail for 48 hours.
According to reports, Circuit Court Judge Celeste Wilson held Assistant District Attorney Andrew Willcutt Monday in criminal contempt of court. Willcutt had indicated to Wilson late last month that a case file had not progressed in bringing the case to a grand jury. Meanwhile the defendant had remained in jail for more than nine months awaiting trial, apparently on an attempted murder charge from Southaven.
Wilson called the delay was unacceptable and admonished Willcutt for not responding to verbal and written orders to appear in court on the matter.
The case concerned Miguel Godinez, booked into the DeSoto County Adult Detention Center on Dec. 24, 2023. He was charged with attempted murder in a case with the Southaven Police Department. He remains in jail on $100,000 bond, according to jail information.
Miguel Godinez (DeSoto County Jail photo)
Willcutt did not appear in court Monday but Barton appeared in his place, at which time Wilson sentenced Willcutt to jail for being held in contempt of court.
Of the 10 day sentence, Wilson suspended all but two days, thus Willcutt will have to spend Oct. 4-5 in jail. Willcutt was also fined $100.
The order has since been sealed and was not available when it was requested on Wednesday.
Barton said he will be contesting the contempt order against Willcutt and will comment further at that time, but added, “I stand with my ADA who has done an exceptional job, including winning a hotly contested attempted murder and armed robbery trial last week along with securing more felony convictions this year than anyone in our district, and potentially the state- including 26 in his last court date.”
Concerning Willcutt’s non-appearance Monday, Barton said, “the ADA was in training, which I assigned to him, to bring industry-leading, cutting-edge digital evidence technology to DeSoto County, the first implementation of this software in the State of Mississippi.”
