Suspect in Slayings Says He Is Innocent : Crime: Paul Carasi says neither he nor his girlfriend, who has been charged with Mother’s Day knifings, did anything wrong.

A North Hollywood man who authorities say is a suspect in the Mother’s Day knife killings of his mother and former girlfriend at Universal CityWalk proclaimed his innocence Thursday and his love for the woman who has been charged with their murders.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” said Paul Carasi, 30, in a telephone interview from his North Hollywood apartment. “By all rights it should have been my neck slashed and not theirs.”

Carasi’s mother, Doris Carasi, 61, and his former girlfriend, Sonia Salinas, 29, were found with their throats cut atop a parking garage after a Mother’s Day dinner at the Country Star restaurant at the Universal City amusement park.

Carasi, who said he was knocked unconscious during the attack, was arrested on suspicion of murder but freed Monday for lack of evidence, although sheriff’s investigators and a prosecutor said he is still considered a suspect.

His girlfriend, Donna Kay Lee, 44, was arraigned this week on two counts of murder. Carasi said he believes Lee is innocent.

“I love Donna,” Carasi said. “And I don’t think she did anything wrong.”

Lee, who dialed for help from a Hollywood Freeway call box about 15 minutes after the two women were found slain in a pool of blood, was discovered alongside the freeway with a badly slashed abdomen. She told authorities she had been stabbed during a robbery.

But investigators also found a bloody butcher knife, bloody clothing, fanny packs belonging to Paul and Doris Carasi and Sonia Salinas’ purse scattered near Lee’s sports car. She has not explained how they got there, authorities said.

Salinas, Lee and Paul Carasi all worked together at a Bank of America data processing facility in Downtown Los Angeles. Lee shared an apartment with Carasi in the same building where his mother lived, and where Salinas and her 2-year-old son by Paul Carasi were frequent visitors.

Sheriff’s investigators have said that Salinas was upset with Carasi over his relationship with Lee and that there was a “rub” between Lee and Salinas.

But Carasi said that he “was getting along” with Salinas and that Salinas and Lee left each other alone. “Donna and Sonia did not approach each other at work or at the apartment,” Carasi said.

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Carasi also described his son, who was present during the attack on his mother and grandmother, as “healthy” and “doing fine.”

“Sonia’s family is still taking care of him because I’m still having trouble taking care of myself,” Carasi said.

Despite Carasi’s release, Deputy Dist. Atty. John F. Gilligan said Thursday that Carasi is considered a suspect and that investigators are collecting additional evidence and awaiting the results of forensic testing in an effort to build a stronger case against him.

“We’re investigating all theories including that [Lee and Paul Carasi] acted together and that it was planned out in advance,” Gilligan said.

Lee, who pleaded not guilty to the murder charges Tuesday in Beverly Hills Municipal Court, also faces special circumstance allegations of committing multiple murders, making her liable for the death penalty. So far, Gilligan said, his office is not seeking the death penalty.