An unanticipated number of high profile murder cases — including the prosecution of accused kidnappers Phillip and Nancy Garrido — is taxing the district attorney’s office like few times before, DA Vern Pierson told county supervisors at their March 2 meeting.

Pierson’s office is eyeing a $144,624 revenue shortfall by year’s end despite spending reductions, consolidating the Victims Witness office and two early retirements.

The Garrido case alone has drained $111,000 from the coffers of the district attorney’s office and is anticipated to near the $200,000 mark by September, but it’s not the only pricey case the office is prosecuting.

Staff salaries and benefits, as well as the cost of resources and supplies, are the most significant cost factors, though Pierson indicated they are needed.

In December, the office won a second-degree murder conviction in a cold case homicide of a 4-year-old boy whose body was never found. The father, Ulysses Roberson, was extradited from Washington state for a two-month trial that resulted in a life sentence.

The staff report submitted to supervisors said the district attorney’s office has been beset by “an unprecedented number of death penalty and murder cases,” as well as “a large number of fraudulent crime cases that are a result of a declining economy.”

The office’s current caseload includes the prosecution of Steven Colver and Tylar Witt, believed responsible for the June 2009 murder of Witt’s mother in El Dorado Hills; a death penalty case against David Charles Zanon for the July 2007 murder of a California Highway Patrol officer; and a complex money laundering and embezzlement case involving a former Dodge dealership in Shingle Springs.

For the first time, the office is handling its caseload without a chief investigator, one of the casualties of early retirement incentives. In a 40-minute discussion, supervisors expressed a willingness to help.

“They were supportive of the district attorney’s position, recognizing that he’s trying to balance budget constraints with meeting the need to deal with the overwhelming number of high profile and unanticipated murder cases that we have in the county right now,” said Kelly Webb, a principal administrative assistant in the Chief Administrative Office.

While no formal action was taken on what was a required policy review, supervisors indicated they would augment their district attorney’s budget if needed. Pierson would likely return within 60 days to make such a request, Webb said.