Jury Deliberates Fate of Man in 4 Slayings

Eighteen months after four people were shot to death in a South Los Angeles home, authorities are still unclear about the motive in the killings. But Thursday, after a monthlong trial, a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury began deliberating the fate of accused gunman William James Butler, 22, one of three defendants charged with the murders.

Butler could face the death penalty if convicted in the April, 1984, shootings of Rebecca Hood, 45; her son, Derrick, 20; her common-law husband, Travis Clark, 49, and family friend Larry Simmons, 37. The four were shot in the home they shared in the 4500 block of 4th Avenue.

“I don’t know why these people were killed,” Deputy Dist. Atty. George J. Knocke conceded. “I wish I could tell you why--I can’t. . . . (But to win a conviction) I do not have to tell you or show you evidence as to why.”

Witness Credibility

To determine whether Butler did it, the jury must decide on the credibility of the sole eyewitness, Marcia Cook, 29, a friend of the victims, who identified Butler in police photos and, later, in a police lineup. Butler, a Los Angeles resident, became a suspect after an anonymous telephone tip linked him to the slayings. At the time of his arrest, he had been on parole for three months after serving eight months in prison for armed robbery.

In her trial testimony, Cook said three men, including Butler, entered the house late at night when she answered a knock on the front door. Cook said she escaped after a struggle in which one of the intruders held a gun to her head, and did not witness the slayings.

In his closing arguments, Deputy Dist. Atty. Knocke stressed that Cook appeared certain that Butler was one of the intruders.

“Out of 36 pictures, she picks his face,” Knocke said. “. . . She didn’t say it might be. . . . She says ‘that’s the same person who held the gun to my head the night of the shooting. . . . I’m positive that’s him.’ ”

Reliability Questioned

Defense counsel Leslie H. Abramson countered that Cook’s recollections were highly unreliable since she initially described the suspect as being 10 years older and several inches taller than Butler. Moreover, Abramson said, Cook acknowledged on the witness stand that she was unable to distinguish between her memories and subsequent nightmares about the shootings.

“She admits she cannot distinguish between dreams and reality about this incident,” Abramson said. “We know that dreams are not real. . . . Is that where we are now, back in the 15th Century?

”. . . This is the case of an innocent man accused of murder by an unreliable, even if, tragic, witness.”

Also arrested within two months after the execution-style shootings were two brothers, Cedric Wayne Scott, 19, and Albert Egger Scott, 20. They are to be tried separately on murder charges.