[El Dorado County District Attorney]
On April 28, 2017, Reid Butler, then sixteen years old, had been sent home from school. As punishment for getting into trouble, his stepfather made Butler do yard work. While working in the yard, Butler left the lawnmower running and entered his parents’ bedroom through an open window and retrieved a handgun. A short time later, Butler walked up behind his stepfather and shot him in the back of the head, killing him. After the murder, he left the home in his stepfather’s truck and spent the rest of the day hanging out with friends.
The District Attorney’s Office fought to have the sixteen-year-old tried as an adult where he would face adult incarceration of 50 years to life for the murder, but, ultimately, Judge Dylan Sullivan denied the People’s request to have Butler transferred to adult court and his matter was adjudicated as a juvenile offense. The maximum sentence Butler could face in juvenile court was confinement until the age of 25 in the California Department of Corrections, Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ).
On May 31, 2019, Butler admitted committing the crime of first degree murder with the special circumstance of using a firearm. At a contested hearing for the disposition of the case, the People argued for the maximum sentence allowable in juvenile court, including commitment to DJJ, while the Public Defender argued for leniency. Ultimately, Judge Sullivan made the determination to commit Butler to DJJ until the age of 25 for the first degree murder of his stepfather and he was sentenced on November 14, 2019.
This case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Brittany Griffith.
November 22 at 3:53 PM
