Witness Says Butler Gave Him Guns After Police Officer’s Slaying

The prosecution’s key witness in the slaying of San Diego Police Officer Jerry Hartless testified Friday that the man accused of pulling the trigger gave him the alleged murder weapon after briefly eluding authorities.

Willie Godine, 39, said he encountered the defendant, Stacy Don Butler, 25, while standing outside a Southeast San Diego residence with a friend shortly after midnight Jan. 9.

“He put an arm around each one of us . . . and put his weight on us. He appeared to be tired and out of breath,” Godine said during the second day of Butler’s preliminary hearing.

Butler refused to tell them where he had been, but asked them to help him walk to the back door of the house, where his friend lived, Godine testified.

‘Get Rid of These’

“Just before Stacy went inside, he handed me two revolvers . . . and said, ‘Get rid of these,’ ” Godine told Municipal Judge Robert Stahl.

“I hesitated for a minute, then stuck one gun in each coat pocket . . . and stuck them under a tree (in the back yard) where the grass was real tall” moments before police arrived and began questioning people, he said.

Hartless, 24, had been shot once in the forehead minutes earlier while chasing a man believed to be selling illegal drugs about three blocks from where Godine encountered Butler.

Hartless, a rookie officer and Marine Corps veteran, was in a coma for 23 days before he died without regaining consciousness. A high school track star, he had chased the alleged drug dealer down a dead-end street, where his partner found him moments later.

Godine testified that he didn’t say anything about hiding the weapons until the next day, when he told his aunt, who relayed the information to Godine’s brother, a San Diego police detective.

Godine told his brother the next day where the guns were hidden, and officers were sent to recover them. A document filed by prosecutors says that “the slug taken from the slain officer’s head was found (through ballistics tests) to have been fired from one of the two pistols Butler had handed to Godine.”

Had Seen Him Earlier

Under questioning by Deputy Dist. Atty. Keith Burt, Godine also testified that he had seen Butler about an hour before the shooting and that he was in possession of one of the two guns, a chrome, .38-caliber, snub-nosed revolver.

Butler was arrested within half an hour of Hartless’ shooting by officers who found him hiding in the bedroom of a residence four houses away from where Godine hid the guns.

A known member of the Lincoln Park Syndo Mob, one of San Diego’s most violent street gangs, Butler had been paroled from state prison 11 days earlier, after serving five months of a 16-month sentence for grand theft.

Because of Butler’s gang ties, Godine and other witnesses have been relocated by authorities to protect them from retribution.

Godine is scheduled to resume his testimony Monday under cross-examination from defense attorney William Nimmo.

After the end of the hearing, which is expected to last three weeks, the judge will decide whether there is enough evidence against Butler to order him to stand trial for murder.