Arkansas hunter's remarks about shooting man ruled OK for murder trial

 Kevin Butler
Kevin Butler

A hog hunter's comments to police about intentionally shooting a man and planting a pistol near the body can be used during trial, a circuit judge ruled.

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Carroll County Circuit Judge Scott Jackson ruled Wednesday that the questioning of Christopher Kevin Butler before reading him his Miranda rights was permissible under the public-safety exception to the Miranda rule.

Jackson also ruled that it was OK for investigators to continue questioning Butler after he said "maybe I should stop talking and get a lawyer."

Jackson wrote that there must be a "direct and unambiguous assertion" to invoke right to counsel.

Jackson's order dismissed a motion to suppress by Butler's public defender, Joseph Tobler of Little Rock. A suppression hearing was held Oct. 27 in Eureka Springs.

Butler, 44, has pleaded innocent to a charge of first-degree murder in the Feb. 19 shooting death of John Catlin Keck, 30. Butler also pleaded innocent to a felony charge of tampering with evidence.

Both men lived in Eureka Springs, and the shooting occurred in a rural area about 2 miles north of the city. Butler told police that he didn't know Keck.

Butler said he shot Keck in self-defense, according to a probable cause affidavit. Butler said he thought he heard Keck "jack" a round of ammunition into the chamber of a pistol, then point the gun in his direction, according to the affidavit.

"I felt like if I didn't pull the trigger, I was going to die," Butler told police.

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Butler called the Carroll County sheriff's office and Eureka Springs Police Department to report the shooting, according to the affidavit.

Butler told police that he hunted for hogs about five nights a week, and he had gone hunting the night of Feb. 19 because some friends had asked him to obtain three hogs for them. Butler told investigators that he parked his Jeep blocking a "wallow road" like he usually did and set off on foot in search of hogs.

But Dustin Anderson, a hog-hunting friend of Butler's, told police that Butler called him the night of Feb. 19 saying there was a trespasser on the hunting property. Butler told Anderson that he was going to block the road with his Jeep and wait in the bushes, according to the affidavit. Butler had permission to hunt on the property, but he didn't own the land.

Butler was wearing a ghillie suit and camouflage clothing and was armed with an AR-15-style rifle, according to a motion filed by Prosecuting Attorney Tony Rogers.

From the bushes, Butler saw the headlights of a Dodge Dakota pickup approaching, according to the affidavit. Butler told police that he heard the pickup driver rev the engine and shout obscenities when he saw the wallow road was blocked.

When Keck got out of the pickup and got into Butler's Jeep to move it, the two men exchanged words before Butler fired three shots, hitting Keck at least once, according to the affidavit.

After the shooting, Butler "threw" a P90 Ruger .45-caliber pistol into the floorboard of the Jeep, according to the affidavit.

In Tobler's July 1 motion to suppress, he wrote that Carroll County Deputy Janet Galland "questioned Butler shortly after his arrest without advising him of his Miranda rights."

In a response motion, Rogers wrote that it was an "extremely volatile situation" and Butler had told Galland that another armed man was loose in the woods, which wasn't true.

After he was taken to the Carroll County jail in Berryville, Butler was interviewed by two sheriff 's office investigators. At one point, Butler told investigator Jerry Williams that "I'm at the point now to where maybe I should stop talking and get a lawyer."

But Williams continued to ask Butler questions in an attempt to "cajole him into continuing the interview," Tobler wrote in his motion.

Williams asked whether Butler was invoking his right to counsel, and Butler said, "I'm not yet," according to Tobler's motion. So Williams and investigator David Deatherage continued the interview.

"The investigators should have honored Butler's constitutional right by ending the interview and walking out," Tobler wrote. "It's clear that Mr. Butler wanted help from an attorney."

Jackson disagreed.

"These statements made by Mr. Butler are insufficient to require that the interrogation cease," the judge wrote in his order.

It was late in that interview when Butler told police that he placed a pistol in the Jeep after shooting Keck, according to the affidavit. When asked why he put the pistol there, Butler said "cause I was scared ... I thought if that ol' boy didn't have a gun, then I'd be charged for murder."

Butler's trial is scheduled for March 27.

Metro on 11/29/2016

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