Man’s Signed Confession in Two Killings Is Offered as Evidence

A signed confession by Robert Gregg Butler to the murders of a popular Pasadena high school teacher and a student was introduced as evidence Wednesday during a preliminary hearing for the 22-year-old nationally ranked track star who is charged with the Dec. 12 shooting deaths.

At the close of the five-hour hearing, Pasadena Municipal Judge Elvira Mitchell ruled that there was “sufficient cause” to try Butler on two counts of murder with special circumstances that could result in the death penalty.

Butler is charged with killing John Muir High School social sciences teacher Robert E. Jones, 47, and 17-year-old Ronald McClendon, a junior varsity basketball player at the school. Both were found shot to death at Jones’ home near Pasadena.

Butler’s signed confession, introduced by Deputy Dist. Atty. Walter Lewis, was taken at Pasadena City Jail on Dec. 14, the day after Butler was arrested at his apartment near Azusa Pacific University, where he was a senior studying police science.

The statement said that Butler, who is described by friends as being incapable of violence and as having had a “father-and-son relationship” with Jones, went to the teacher’s home late on the night of Dec. 11 to talk.

Detective Donald Gallon, who said he took down the jailhouse confession, testified Wednesday that Butler said he walked into Jones’ home through an unlocked back door and went directly to the teacher’s bedroom.

“(Butler) shook him and woke him up,” Gallon said. “Jones said that he was tired and wanted to go back to sleep.”

Gallon said that Butler was upset with Jones because the teacher had stopped communicating with him. When Jones rolled over and went back to sleep, according to the detective, Butler said “it was more than I could stand.” Butler went to the laundry room, where Jones kept a loaded revolver in an ice bucket, returned to the bedroom and shot Jones twice as he slept, the detective testified.

The defendant told police that he then walked into the living room, where McClendon was sleeping on the couch, and fired two shots into the head and shoulder of the youth, Gallon said.

According to Gallon, Butler then drove to Duarte and threw the gun into a trash can.

After the hearing, members of Butler’s family said the confession was made under duress.

‘He Was Scared’

“I know him too good,” said his brother, William. “When he gets under pressure, he breaks. He was scared.”

Jones was a respected and well-liked teacher at Muir, who was known for offering troubled male students a place to live, as he did with McClendon and had done in the past for Butler. But Wednesday’s hearing was marked by testimony from two of Jones’ former roommates that revealed another side of the instructor. Jones had told both that he was gay, according to their testimony. Both said they never had a homosexual relationship with the teacher.

One of the witnesses, James Shaw Jr., who lived with the teacher last summer, said Jones had given him a credit card and that the two had a joint checking account. Jones had also given Butler a car, Shaw said.

Family members of both McClendon and Butler said Wednesday that Jones attempted to buy the affections of his student roommates.

‘A Smooth Operator’

“He was a smooth operator,” said Kermit Johnson, McClendon’s stepfather. “He bought them all these things, I think, so they would have an affair with him. Ronnie told me that (Jones) was gay, which is why we didn’t want him living there.”

Butler’s sister, Toni, agreed. “He gave them all kinds of things, money, credit cards,” she said. “I knew that he was gay.”

Defense attorney John Cheroske argued unsuccessfully to have the confession thrown out on the grounds that Butler’s constitutional rights were violated because he was kept from seeing his client while he signed the confession.

Mitchell, however, ruled that “there’s nothing to indicate that any stalling was done. The statement was freely and voluntarily made.” Arraignment in Pasadena Superior Court was scheduled for March 27.