By 1978, Butler was hanging out with Timmie Lee Hooper, who was eight years older and ran a “bootleg joint,” an illegal liquor establishment at 817 Almond Ave.
On Oct. 3, 1978, Natalie Wood was found dead in Richardson Park in Jefferson Twp. She died from a shotgun blast to the abdomen. On Oct. 21, 1978, a robbery at Ben’s Motel, 3225 Home Ave., resulted in the shootings of motel clerks Charles Wilson and James Henderson. Wilson died two days later.
In March 1979, a Montgomery County grand jury indicted Butler, then 18, on charges of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, rape, murder, kidnapping and theft in connection with Wood’s and Wilson’s deaths and the robberies at Ben’s Motel and the robbery of the Travel Master Inn, 225 W. First St., on Nov. 26, 1978.
Butler was already cooperating with authorities. On March 1, he agreed to testify against Hooper and three others in the two homicides. Butler was to plead to two counts of murder, and prosecutors recommended that he serve those two counts concurrently.
At Butler’s Aug. 16, 1979, sentencing hearing, prosecutor’s investigator Ralph Beutle told Judge William Wolff that Butler had cooperated “100 percent,” filling in details where investigators only had “faint ideas” of what had happened.
“Through his information, we were able to sentence each and every member of that gang to the penitentiary,” Beutle said.
Butler was then told he would be eligible for parole in 10 years. He had reason to believe he might get it, given that he had the support of both law enforcement and the prosecutor’s office.
In July 1985, R.E. McKeever, a major with the Jefferson Twp. Police Department, wrote a letter on his behalf.
Herbert M. Jacobson, an assistant county prosecutor, wrote in a September 1990 letter to Butler: “This office has no objections to your being favorably considered for release when you appear at your parole hearing.”
In a letter to H. Steven Hobbs, then Butler’s attorney, Jacobson wrote “hope he makes it.”
A changed man
Butler was doing his part. Prison officials said he has never been disciplined.
“I know that I am rehabilitated,” Butler said.
In a 2006 evaluation of Butler’s work as a laundry attendant, a sergeant gave him a perfect score, writing “this inmate is a very good worker and goes the extra step to help the unit.”
Butler has been before the parole board at least nine times, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Records show the board has made a note that Douglas was “convicted of committing two murders that occurred at different times.”
Butler said the process has left him frustrated because he can’t undo what happened in the past.
“They say the same thing,” Butler said, “due to the serious nature of the charge.”
Cynthia Mausser, chair of the parole board since 2005, would not comment on specifics of Butler’s case, but said for an inmate convicted as a “aider and abetter,” the board will compare what that particular person’s role was in the crime. But having two separate murder convictions will be looked at as an aggravating factor, even if the sentences for those convictions were to run concurrently, Mausser said.
Mausser also said the parole board is looking for inmates to take responsibility for their crimes.
Tom Hagel, who teaches at the University of Dayton School of Law, said that telling the truth is “vital,” and that the board would have full records about an inmate’s crimes. To mislead the board, or to even minimize his role, would likely harm an inmate’s chances for parole, he said.
“If he gets up there and starts telling fairy tales,” Hagel said “they’re going to say the person is a sociopath. Somebody with a sociopathic personality, they don’t change.”
Two murders
Natalie Wood, 21, was a friend who ran with the gang at Hooper’s bootleg liquor house. Her body was found nude at Richardson Park, in Jefferson Twp. She died from a shotgun blast to the abdomen.
The coroner’s office found evidence consistent with rape.
Police told the Dayton Daily News in 1979 that Wood was killed out of revenge after she tried to leave Hooper’s gang for another one. Hooper apparently believed she was trying to set him up for a hit.
Butler said Hooper blamed Wood for an attempt on his life. Hooper, Butler and two other gang members, Althea Nelson and Jerry Watson, took Wood to the park.
Once there, Butler said, Hooper insisted that someone shoot Wood, or Hooper would shoot everyone present. So Watson shot her, Butler said.
During a recent interview, Butler first denied knowing anything about Wood’s rape. But when asked if Watson was convicted of rape, Butler first answered that he didn’t know. Then he said yes.
Several minutes later, Butler volunteered, “as far as the sex part was concerned, I had sex with Natalie earlier that day when we were together.”
During a December 1978 interview with detectives, Butler said, “I went to try to have sex relations with (Wood), but she wouldn’t quite let me.”
Butler told detectives both he and Butler were holding the shotgun.
“I held the barrel of the gun and turned my head,” Butler said. “About that time, Jerry Watson pulled the trigger.”
During Hooper’s trial, Watson said only Butler had raped Wood, but “he did admit pulling the trigger with Butler,” according to a July 1979 story in The Journal Herald.
Watson also told a polygraph operator he and Butler pulled the trigger together “so that one could not tell on the other.”
Butler’s current version of the Ben’s Motel shootings contradict his prior statements and testimony.
Butler now says he was not present for the shootings. Instead, he said, Hooper, Nelson and another gang member, Karen Freeman, left him at a bootleg joint next to the motel. When he came outside, he went to the motel because “there ain’t but one place they could be.”
When he walked in, both victims had been shot and the robbery was happening.
“I always carried a pellet gun with me,” Butler said. “It wasn’t even real. So I pulled it out.”
He then demanded to know what was going on, but “I seen the dude on the floor, and I turned around and ran out the door. I turned around and looked back and they were running right behind me.”
This is a departure from what Butler told police in December 1978. That version starts in the bootleg joint, but the four left together and went to rob the motel. Butler told police he had a .32-caliber revolver and that he was present when Hooper shot the two victims.
Police reports show that Henderson, who survived the shooting, identified Hooper as the man who shot Wilson, but identified a picture of Butler as the man who shot him in the forehead.
Under Butler’s plea agreement, the count for Henderson’s shooting was dropped.
Still waiting
O’Brien said he doesn’t know why Butler’s account of the events has changed. He said he is considering having Butler examined by a psychologist, and that being incarcerated for so long could have affected his mind.
But O’Brien added that his client has done his time, far more than he originally believed he would have to do.
“I’m not claiming he was an altar boy before this thing happened, but he was a very young person,” O’Brien said.
Butler said he has a lot of remorse.
“To witness someone die, it’s hard to live with, mentally,” Butler said. “It’s something that burns in your soul.”
Butler has new letters of support, including ones from retired Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge John W. Kessler, who was Butler’s attorney in 1979, and retired Ohio 2nd District Court of Appeals Judge William H. Wolff Jr. Wolff, who retired this year, had been the common pleas judge who sentenced Butler in 1979.
O’Brien points out that two of Butler’s former gang members are no longer in prison: Karen Freeman, paroled in 1980 for her robbery convictions, and Althea Nelson, who was paroled in 2004 after serving 25 years for convictions of aggravated murder, kidnapping and robbery.
“I’m not a killer; I’m not a rapist; I’m not a murder; and I’m not a monster,” Butler said. “I’m just an individual that got caught up as a juvenile, as a kid, by hanging with the wrong crowd. This could happen to anybody.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2057 or lgrieco@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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