Gang Member Charged With Murder in Rookie Officer’s Death

After six months of trying to find a frightened witness and police investigation, prosecutors announced Wednesday that they have filed a murder charge against a San Diego gang member in the death of rookie Police Officer Jerry Hartless.

Also filed in San Diego Municipal Court was a lengthy legal declaration in which the district attorney’s office laid out much of its key evidence in the highly publicized January slaying.

That evidence included statements from witnesses that Stacy Don Butler, who allegedly shot Hartless after a foot chase, appeared “physically exhausted, out of breath, nearly unable to stand and literally soaking wet with sweat” when he asked them to destroy his two pistols.

Also, one crucial witness was physically assaulted and her home was sprayed by gunfire in an attempt to keep her from testifying, officials said.

Butler, 25, was charged with murder with the use of a firearm and with being an ex-convict in possession of a firearm. Officials said they are still weighing whether to file special-circumstances charges for killing a police officer. Such charges could bring a sentence of death if he were convicted.

The complaint was filed late Monday but ordered sealed until officials could serve subpoenas on out-of-state witnesses. The complaint was then unsealed Tuesday, and officials announced Wednesday afternoon that the case had been filed.

Butler was arrested Jan. 9, the night of the shooting, and has been held since on a probation violation.

Steve Casey, a spokesman in the district attorney’s office, said Wednesday night that there were several reasons that the murder charge was just now being filed. He said witnesses were difficult to locate and interview and that, because of witness tampering, one key witness left town and could not be found. He said prosecutors had to request more investigative work from police detectives several times to put together the best prosecutable case.

“We needed some more work,” Casey said. “It wasn’t all there.”

He declined to elaborate, but indicated that the problems of putting together the case will become evident when Butler appears at a preliminary hearing tentatively set for July 14. Butler is to be arraigned June 29.

Casey also said that officials did not feel rushed to file the murder charge, noting that Butler, now incarcerated in Vacaville, was already in custody on the probation violation.

Hartless was shot after he and his partner, on patrol, approached a group of men for a field interview in Southeast San Diego. When the men ran, Hartless, a former high school track star, gave chase on foot.

Moments later, his partner, Officer Johan Schneider, caught up with Hartless. He found him lying in a dead-end street, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the forehead. Hartless remained in a coma until he died Jan. 31.

Butler was arrested moments after the report of the shooting was broadcast. Several officers, hearing the distress call, went to a known drug house where Butler was found in a back bedroom.

The distance between the shooting scene and the house is about three blocks, or what police described as a two-minute walk.

Hartless, 24, was a rookie officer who had graduated from the Police Academy only 10 months earlier, where he took top honors for physical achievement.

Butler has been described as a persistent offender, a man with many aliases and a series of criminal convictions.

The legal declaration, signed by Deputy District Atty. Keith G. Burt, gave this scenario:

Within minutes of the shooting and two blocks from the dead end, Felicia Lafray Johnson and Willie Godine encountered Butler on the street.

“Butler was physically exhausted, out of breath, nearly unable to stand, literally soaking with sweat. Butler put his arms over the neck and shoulders of Johnson and Godine and walked to the house. . . . Just before Butler entered the house, he turned and handed two pistols to Godine and told Godine to ‘get rid of these.’ ”

The guns were later recovered by police with Godine’s assistance. They were test-fired and forensically examined. “The slug taken from the slain officer’s head was found to have been fired from one of the two pistols Butler had handed to Godine,” the declaration says.

The suspect Hartless was chasing had been described as wearing a “green, long-sleeved top.” One witness said that, when Butler ran into the house, he removed a “green, long-sleeved top” and tossed it into a closet, where it was later recovered by police.

Butler was known as a member of a street gang, the Lincoln Park Syndo Mob, police said.

On Jan. 12, Joseph Darnell Singleton, another member of that gang, assaulted Johnson and demanded to know what she had told police, according to the declaration. He was arrested the next day and charged with witness tampering. The following morning, Johnson’s home was the “subject of a drive-by shooting in which several large-caliber slugs were fired into the residence and cars which were parked in front of the house,” the decaration said.

The frightened Johnson later left town. Prosecutors said they were unable to get word to her about the case, even though a pager was given Johnson’s family and photographs of her were passed out at police squad lineups.

“No response has been received as of this date,” the declaration says.

Further complicating the case was information officials received from Butler’s brother, Keith Butler, a San Diego County jail inmate.

Keith Butler told officials that another inmate, who is also a Syndo gang member, told him on the day of the shooting that he “knows the bitch that might tell.”

He said that inmate then made a phone call from jail, then told Keith Butler: “It’s handled, homeboy. I put the mob together and six to seven homeboys will handle it. I put the mob on the bitch.”

Based on these concerns, the declaration says, “It is highly likely attempts will be made to prevent or dissuade any identified witnesses from appearing and testifying.”